The question "What is Dreame?" became a family discussion topic for two hours during the 2026 Spring Festival Gala, where the company enjoyed prominent exposure, sparking widespread curiosity about this emerging technology firm. Just one week prior, Dreame's advertisement had aired during the prime-time NBC broadcast of the American Super Bowl. News of the company issuing gold to all employees during the Spring Festival holiday further propelled it into the media spotlight, with founder Yu Hao's remarks repeatedly trending online. Behind this series of high-profile moves, what kind of company is Dreame? How has a startup team originating from a Tsinghua University laboratory managed to build a reputation across multiple fields in just eight years, achieving over 100% revenue growth for six consecutive years? Is its corporate culture becoming a new trendsetter within the tech industry?
Reflecting on the over forty-year history of the Spring Festival Gala, the evolution of its corporate partners subtly mirrors the rhythm of China's economic development. From early partnerships with liquor brands to the interactive waves led by internet platforms, and culminating in 2026 with robotics, AI, and smart products dominating the screen, the underlying narrative of economic progress shifts from traditional consumption to internet innovation, and further to a lifestyle driven by hard technology. At the Gala, Dreame showcased a product matrix covering multiple home scenarios, including robotic vacuum cleaners, floor washers, vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, as well as major appliances like air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines. This was complemented by the global debut of its "Starry Sky Plan" concept car, the Nebula Next 01, at CES in early 2026.
The foundational support for this ecosystem is linked to Dreame's origins. In 2009, while studying at Tsinghua University, Yu Hao established a student社团 called "Skyworks." Housed in a mere 20-square-meter lab tucked away in a corner of Zijing Apartment C, a handful of students often worked until 3 or 4 a.m., striving to get a tri-rotor aircraft airborne. There were no deadlines imposed for assignments. The社团's sole recruitment criterion was a "genuine passion for technological innovation and a willingness to get hands-on." The selection process was unconventional: after 6 p.m., project teams would send technical or design challenges to applicants, with submissions due by 6 a.m. the next day—a 12-hour极限 challenge with no standard answers, focusing solely on attitude and execution. More important than technical skill was the youthful spirit of "daring to dream and daring to act," which aligns with Dreame's later core ethos of "DREAM IT, DO IT." This small, self-organized group was initiated by Yu Hao, then a Tsinghua student. Skyworks also served as Dreame's crucial initial talent pool; when Yu Hao decided to start the company, his founding team was almost entirely composed of Skyworks members.
In 2015, this startup team began tackling high-speed digital motor technology from scratch, while also investing persistently in R&D for areas like intelligent algorithms and motion control. This motor is the core "heart" of smart appliances. At the time, international giants' products could achieve speeds of 100,000 RPM, while most domestic cleaning products' motors maxed out at 30,000 RPM, relying on external supply chains for production with no mature domestic experience to follow. The team dedicated extensive time to material simulation, fluid dynamics calculations, and countless cycles of testing, failure, and restarting. They eventually matched Dyson's motor speed at half the cost. Dreame Technology was formally established in 2017. Yu Hao set two standards for the company: first, its products must be usable by millions of households, as ubiquitous as tap water; second, they must possess significant technological barriers that, over time, become a long and wide "snowfield," allowing the company to extend and broaden its technology into other fields, generating continuous technological compound interest.
In its first two years, Dreame focused primarily on technology R&D and supply chain refinement. The speed of its high-speed digital motors broke through from 125,000 RPM to 150,000 RPM, reaching mass production at 160,000 RPM with a reserve capability of 200,000 RPM. Beyond high-speed motors, Dreame progressively expanded its core technologies to include intelligent algorithms and bionic robotic arms. This enabled a "develop once, reuse across categories" approach, leading to decreasing marginal costs for new product category expansion and a success rate and speed far exceeding the industry average. This technological foundation later became the bedrock for the company's expansion, growing from cleaning products to home appliances, smart audio-visual equipment, and even the smart mobility sector, ultimately forming the extensive product ecosystem displayed at the 2026 Spring Festival Gala.
In 2019, Dreame began building its own brand, opting for a "difficult first, easy later" strategy by initially targeting premium markets like South Korea, Germany, France, and the USA before expanding to other regions. Company executives explained the logic: establishing brand recognition in mature markets builds global溢价能力, helping to change the perception of Chinese brands as merely cheap alternatives while forcing the company to position itself as a global, world-class enterprise from the outset. Early sales were primarily handled by local overseas distributors. Starting in Japan and South Korea, coverage quickly expanded to Western Europe, which remains one of Dreame's strongest markets. Subsequently, it entered more European countries, as well as Southeast Asia and North America. In the past global division of labor, the model might have involved US companies handling R&D, Chinese companies manufacturing, and European companies managing branding and distribution. Now, Chinese tech firms like Dreame possess integrated capabilities in R&D, technology, supply chain, global sales networks, and brand building simultaneously. By the end of 2025, Dreame's business spanned over 120 countries and regions worldwide, with more than 6,500 physical retail stores, serving over 42 million households. Overseas revenue accounted for nearly 80% of its total. An observer familiar with cross-border business noted that Dreame's globalization is not just an "overseas expansion story"; it is a product strength and technological foundation repeatedly validated in global markets, tested and iterated across different cultures, living environments, and usage habits.
Regarding robotic vacuum cleaners, by the end of 2025, Dreame held the number one market share in 30 countries globally, exceeding 40% share in 11 countries including Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, and Denmark. Its floor washer products ranked first in nearly 20 countries, with market share exceeding 70% in some. Robotic lawn mowers represent another growth area. Utilizing a 3D LiDAR + binocular vision perception system, they operate independently of GPS and boundary wires, achieving "out-of-the-box" usability and leading sales in multiple European countries. These markets are less price-sensitive and prioritize high quality. Emerging Chinese tech companies like Dreame are beginning to penetrate mature markets through technology and premium positioning.
Starting in 2023, Dreame's business expansion accelerated markedly. That year, it entered the smart home appliance sector, launching products like air conditioners, refrigerators, TVs, and washing machines. This was followed by smart kitchen appliances, starting with dishwashers and gradually building an integrated kitchen ecosystem encompassing range hoods, stoves, microwave/steam/oven combos, and water purifiers. In smart audio-visual, its AI smart ring topped Tmall's sales charts within three months of launch. Its smartphone business, centered on a fully self-developed technology stack covering chips, algorithms, and software/hardware systems, is planned for a global market release in 2026. The smart mobility "Starry Sky Plan" assembled a team of nearly 1,000 people, possessing a "Twelve-Star Full-Stack Technology System" covering smart driving, smart cockpits, and chassis architecture. The concept car Nebula Next 01 made its global debut at CES in early 2026. A complete "Full-Scenario Smart Ecosystem" is taking shape, with Dreame's ultimate goal being "human-centric proactive intelligence."
However, questions arise: What is the underlying logic for such rapid expansion? Internally, Dreame refers to it as "technological compound interest." Using its three core technologies—high-speed digital motors, intelligent algorithms, and bionic robotic arms—as a unified base enables cross-category reuse and synergy. A high-speed digital motor can power not only a vacuum cleaner but also a hair dryer, range hood, or air conditioner. Intelligent algorithms used for a vacuum cleaner's path planning can also optimize a washing machine or refrigerator. A bionic robotic arm can clean, mow lawns, or wash windows. By the end of 2025, Dreame had accumulated over 10,000 patent applications globally, with more than 3,000 granted.
An insider revealed that Dreame's true moat is "Technology × Organization × Ecosystem." In 2022, Dreame underwent a significant organizational restructuring as its workforce grew from a few hundred to 2,000 employees. The management style reliant on trust that worked in a smaller company was no longer viable. Management recognized the need to enhance organizational capabilities with better structure and support. The core of the adjustment was establishing a Business Unit (BU) system. Vertically, it's organized by region, including China and six overseas regions. Horizontally, it's structured by product lines: robotic vacuums, floor washers, vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, air purifiers, water purifiers, dishwashers, refrigerators, air conditioners, smart TVs, phones, smart mobility, etc. R&D is separated by product line, while horizontal departments—like sales, supply chain, and finance—cut across the verticals, extending all the way to R&D. The benefit of this architecture is rapid experimentation, internal competition among teams ("horse racing"), promoting the capable and demoting the ineffective. Much like the original "Skyworks," it allows for swift development; once a model proves successful, it's rapidly replicated.
Yu Hao and Dreame's style have always been characterized by speed and novelty. Each new business unit aims to compete with the industry leader, rapidly replicating and learning, quickly forming teams (BUs), investing R&D funds far above the industry average, introducing product innovations, and rapidly capturing markets with premium products. During the 2026 Spring Festival, Dreame trended online for "giving one gram of customized gold to every employee." Nearly 20,000 employees each received a gold coin engraved with their name, estimated to cost over 20 million yuan. Yu Hao even changed his Weibo name to "Yu Hao - Loves Giving Gold." Concurrently, ten outstanding employees were sent to Antarctica. Yu Hao denied this was "hype," emphasizing it "required at least half a year of planning." The talent logic of a high-growth company is becoming clear: extreme incentives in exchange for extreme execution.
Following the Spring Festival Gala, Dreame garnered even broader attention. At the company's annual meeting in early 2026, Yu Hao expressed two wishes to tens of thousands of employees: for Dreame to become the "greatest enterprise in human history," and for himself to become the "world's richest person" soon. He wrote on his social media, "I will push the enterprise with the highest human value up by an order of magnitude, building the Dreame ecosystem to a scale of one hundred trillion US dollars." At current valuations, this equates to approximately 22 Nvidias. The statement caused a stir. Yu Hao later explained on Weibo why he publicly stated these goals: for rapid information dissemination and understanding, ensuring every frontline employee knows the founder's thinking... within Dreame, information access is almost equal for everyone... This not only greatly speeds up information flow but also enhances frontline decision-making autonomy. This is one reason for Dreame's strong execution and its employees' rapid growth. "It sounds so incredible. But we manage such a company in an incredibly unconventional way," Yu Hao said. "It's more like a university than a company."
Amid controversy, Dreame continues its journey. Its performance is outstanding,基本 maintaining a pace of doubling headcount and revenue annually while continuously improving profit margins. The rise of such an emerging tech company is also altering the narrative of Chinese hard technology—moving beyond just cost-effectiveness, beyond being a follower, beyond单一 categories. It's a story of technological compound interest, global pricing power, and an entrepreneur from a Tsinghua lab leading a team to constantly discover new frontiers beyond existing boundaries.