HIEE300698R0001 “They had participated in the service Trade Fair and the earliest humanoid robot conference, and my feeling at that time was that their robot was still in a toy state.” It can not be used as a real practical application in life, robots dancing, doing push-ups, a group of robot dogs running in front, etc., but there is still a great distance from real use. A few years ago, their development enthusiasm was focused on making the robot into an e-marketplace, which was similar to adding various paid and app functions on top of it, and the original idea of free hardware and making money through software and subsequent services.” Li Jie, an artificial intelligence practitioner, spoke bluntly in an interview with China Industry News.
In addition, Li Jie also revealed, “In Tmall, we once thought of the ecological branch of Tmall Electronics City, inviting preferred and selected robots to participate, we once thought of a creative idea, by the robot to go up to each business or brand to award, DJI’s drone flew over, held by the robot, and then awarded, which appears to have a strong science fiction color.” Later, in actual operation, it was found that this was not feasible, because the robot at that time could only walk on the ground, slightly encountered steps, thresholds or gullies, it would fall, if it did not play well on the stage, it was bound to turn from a news into a scandal, so finally abandoned the program. At that time, we also talked with the best choice of people, first of all, can not hold the hardware loss way, expect to implant a variety of paid services on this way to dHIEE300698R0001 o. It is likely that the hardware of the robot itself does not meet the requirements, and the software services behind are not to talk about, and there are many things that can use various software services and paid services, and others do not necessarily pay attention to the robot, this idea is problematic.”
That’s not much of a loss in revenue
According to Goldman Sachs forecasts, in the ideal case of revolutionary breakthroughs in technology, the compound annual growth rate of humanoid robots from 2025 to 2035 will reach 94%, and the market size will reach $154 billion in 2035. There is no doubt that the industry in which Youbi is located has very good development prospects and market space in the future.
But the future is not the present. At present, one of the reasons why the financial data of the company is difficult to support the high stock price is the loss for several years, and the decline in gross profit.
Data show that from 2020 to 2023, the company lost about 707 million yuan, 917.5 million yuan, 987.4 million yuan and 1.264.6 billion yuan, respectively.
In addition, the gross profit of the company decreased from 397.2 million yuan in 2022 to 332.8 million yuan in 2023, and the gross profit margin decreased from 39.4% in 2022 to 31.5% in 2023. The company said in the announcement that this was mainly due to the change in product sales structure, the increase in the proportion of logistics intelligent roboHIEE300698R0001 ts and intelligent robot solutions revenue and its relatively low gross profit, and the decline in the proportion of revenue of the company’s higher gross profit educational intelligent robot products and services.
It is difficult to achieve growth in gross profit and net profit, which has a lot to do with the large amount of money invested in research and development every year. According to the data, the average R&D investment accounted for more than 50% from 2020 to 2023, and the proportion of R&D expenses in revenue was 57.9%, 63.3%, 42.5% and 46.4%, respectively.
“The company’s losses are increasing, while revenue growth is slowing. This may indicate that the company’s profitability is challenged. At the same time, a company’s frequent fundraising may reflect a greater need for capital, either to support research and development investments or to cover operating losses. This situation may raise doubts among investors about the company’s financial health and future profitability.” Greenberg thinks.
