‘No matter what difficulties OrionStar encounters, we'll never skimp on employee salaries,’ said Fu Sheng
Beijing OrionStar Technology Co. (Chinese: 猎户星空), a service robot startup backed by Cheetah Mobile (CMCM: NYSE, Chinese: 猎豹移动), recently made news by responding forcefully to media reports that the firm decided to suspend executive pay for three months.
According to Leiphone, a tech media website, the robotics firm chose to withhold salaries for executives for three months starting March, while mid-level employees will be owed 50% of their pay. The firm will issue the back pay in three months, said Leiphone.
Fu Sheng, chairman and CEO of Cheetah Mobile, issued an open letter to refute what he said was “untrue report,” expressing indignation at the “inaccurate” content and detailing the company's prospects.
OrionStar mainly makes and sells three types of robots: audio guide, delivery and two-armed humanoid robots. According to Fu, the company, founded in 2016 as an affiliate of Cheetah Mobile, had seen its revenue double for two consecutive years. Its voice service robot, mini (豹小蜜), achieved month-on-month and year-on-year increase in sales and revenue in 2021.
In an apparent dig at AI startups and competitors which burn “billions of yuan” to fund their research and product development, Fu said OrionStar’s spending on R&D is “highly efficient” in securing core technological strengths.
“Now, with OrionStar’s industry-leading full-link AI-powered technology, we expect to become profitable within one year,” Fu Sheng wrote in the open letter.
In the letter Fu also said OrionStar’s products have been deployed to more than 100 cities nationwide and started to be shipped to overseas market in the second half of 2021. To date it has made its presence in countries such as the United States, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Holland, Germany and Malaysia.
He believes service robotics is at an "inflection point" as more and more small- and medium-sized enterprises are purchasing service robots and this sector becomes a magnet for investment.
"But we are deeply aware that the real rise of the industry is marked by prioritizing efficiency and profitability," said Fu. "The era of splurging money on marketing and disorderly expansion is over."
By July 2020, smart service robots from OrionStar have served over 200 million people and completed more than 6 million voice interactions daily. The companies said its robots have been adopted by more than 1,800 organizations and used in over 20 core vertical scenarios, including epidemic prevention and control, smart retail, and smart public transportation.
The veteran entrepreneur said the firm has carried out a plan called "Nirvana" to offer stock options to most staff workers. "No matter what difficulties OrionStar encounters, we'll never skimp on employee salaries," Fu said.