The

tech industry has recently been buzzing with the "Finger Severed Project", and the main implementer of this competitive approach is suspected to be Dreame, a cutting-edge company in the sweeping robot industry.

Industry unveiling: Wang Ye and Liu Jingkang's "roar".

As early as July 2024, Wang Ye, the founder and CEO of Nine Company (689009), publicly criticized a company for implementing the "Finger Cutting Plan" in the "Shunwei CEO" group chat, saying that it has been poaching people with several times the salary for Ecovacs (603486), Roborock (688169), and Nine Company for several years, and after digging it up, it takes 3 months to dig up the technical secrets and trade secrets, and then fire the people who are poached to poach the core backbone employees of the competition with high salaries. After hollowing out the other party's technical secrets within three months, the poached employees were immediately dismissed. This kind of behavior is not only a malicious attack on peers, but also undermines the trust foundation of the entire industry.

Wang Ye's speech in the "Shunwei CEO Group".

"Shunwei CEO Group" is the WeChat group of the CEOs of some Xiaomi ecological chain companies, "Shunwei" refers to Shunwei Capital, and the link with Xiaomi is Lei Jun. Founded in 2012, the company started with electric balance cars, and its most well-known products are nine balance cars and nine electric vehicles, which received investment from Shunwei Capital and Xiaomi Group (01810) two years after its establishment. Previously, Nine Company made a Xiaomi balance car for Xiaomi, and now it has also developed a service robot business.

Half a year later, in January 2025, Liu Jingkang, the founder of Shadow Stone 360, who is also a Xiaomi department, spoke out again in the circle of friends, pointing the finger at this mysterious company. He said that "the bottom line of a company is bottomless", and criticized its behavior of stealing technology through high-paying poaching and then quickly laying off employees. He also admitted that although he had often complained about its rival DJI, compared with this company, DJI appeared to be "much more morally noble", at least relying on self-cultivation of talents rather than unscrupulous means.

Shadow Stone 360 is mainly engaged in action cameras and panoramic cameras, and in the action camera market, Shadow Stone, Go pro and DJI are the three legs. The Shadow Stone IPO (Initial Public Offering) has been unsuccessful for many years. In 2020, Shadow Stone began to sprint to the Science and Technology Innovation Board, but 4 years have passed, and the listing has not been successful. It is rumored that Shadowstone is now preparing for an IPO in Hong Kong and may seek a valuation of at least 15 billion yuan.

"Severed Finger Project": The spearhead is aimed at Dreame Technology

The so-called "finger severance plan" is a vicious competition strategy, which refers to the fact that some enterprises poach the core technical personnel of competitors with several times the high salary, use them to obtain core technology or trade secrets in a short period of time, and then quickly find excuses to lay off these employees. This behavior not only hits competitors, but also causes damage to the career stability of the poached employees and disrupts the level playing field in the industry.

Judging from public information, the target companies accused are almost concentrated in sweeping robots and related industries. Leading companies in the industry, such as Ecovacs and Roborock, have been exposed as victims of this plan.

Although the products of Nine Company and Shadow Stone 360 seem to have little to do with sweeping robots, in fact, sweeping robots will also be equipped with sensor cameras, and it is rumored that Shadow Stone 360 and Nine Company have food delivery robots, lawn mower robots and other products. As a result, these "victims" intersect in the fields of sensors, SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), computer vision, battery and motor control, edge computing and algorithm optimization, wireless communication and Internet of Things (IoT) support.

When discussing Wang Ye and Liu Jingkang's remarks on the Internet, many people pointed the finger at Dreame Technology.

(Image source: Maimai).

Dreame Technology: Controversy in Rapid Expansion

Dreame Technology was founded in 2017 by Jiang Fan and his team. As a member of the Xiaomi ecological chain, it has risen rapidly with wireless vacuum cleaners and sweeping robots. In recent years, its market share has grown rapidly, reaching 7.6% in the third quarter of 2024, behind Ecovacs, Roborock and Xiaomi.

The rise of Dreame is inseparable from the support of the Xiaomi ecological chain, but its development process is also accompanied by many controversies. In February 2024, Dreame filed a lawsuit with the court, alleging that Roborock infringed its bionic robotic arm patent.

In 2023, Dreame also filed a patent lawsuit against Roborock in Germany, which eventually led to Roborock being stopped from selling, using, and importing in the German market in August 2024. In the German market from January to October 2023, Dreame has a market share of 37.9% and Roborock is 17%; Dreame directly eliminated a major competitor in the local area and directly hit the market share of the competitor.

Although there is nothing wrong with the patent litigation strategy itself, and it is common for the robot vacuum cleaner industry to sue each other for patent infringement, the "Finger Breaking Project" has raised questions in the industry about the business ethics of Dreame Technology.

In addition, there have been voices questioning the lack of independent research and development capabilities. This skepticism has also been amplified with the accusations of the "Finger Severed Project".

Skeptics point out that Dreame's innovation seems to rely more on poaching and acquiring off-the-shelf technologies than on independent research and development. Although the number of patents published by Dreame has increased in recent years, some of them are alleged to be highly similar to existing technologies in the industry, further exacerbating doubts about whether it truly masters the core technology.

According to IP Power, Dreame has been involved in intellectual property disputes with other companies on several occasions. For example, since June 2022, Ecovacs and its subsidiary Timco have initiated 21 patent infringement or unfair competition lawsuits against Dreame Technology in the courts of Tianjin, Nanjing, Suzhou and other places, with a cumulative claim amount of about 80 million yuan.

In 2019, Dreame was also administratively punished by the Wuzhong District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Suzhou City for infringing on Ecovacs' trade secrets.

A vicious circle in the "involution" of the industry

The emergence of the "Broken Finger Plan" reflects the involution and anxiety of the entire sweeping robot industry. In recent years, with the intensification of market competition, technology patent disputes and market competition between leading enterprises have intensified. Dreame's poaching behavior not only made competitors complain, but also caused contradictions within the Xiaomi ecological chain.

Roborock, Ecovacs, Nine and other companies have been an important part of Xiaomi's ecological chain. However, as these companies gradually turn to independent brands, their ties with Xiaomi and each other have gradually weakened, and the competitive pressure has intensified. In 2017, 57.31% of Nine's revenue came from Xiaomi, and by 2023, this proportion has dropped to 4.27%. In this context, the rise of Dreame Technology has also aroused the vigilance of other "brother companies".

The "Finger Severed Plan" intensifies competition within the industry, which not only leads to a waste of resources, but also may further reduce the innovation efficiency of the overall industry. The industry can be caught in a vicious cycle in which companies focus more on defensive strategies than on product innovation and user experience improvement; Partnerships in the industry ecosystem are undermined, making it more difficult for small businesses to survive and thrive.

At present, there is no specific precedent against the "finger severance plan", but there are many lawsuits involving high-paying poaching and leakage of core technologies, and the main points of litigation are usually infringement of trade secrets and unfair competition.

Will the "Finger Severed Project" cause a bigger industry storm? Is the tech industry choosing to get lost in the fierce competition, or is it finding a new balance in the rules? Let's wait and see.