By Xie Zefeng
While the robotics industry is still debating when true deployment will occur, a different picture is emerging downstream.
Today, when a job seeker inquires whether a so-called "robotics company" is still hiring for testing positions, they are likely not dealing with robot OEMs like AgiBot or GALBOT, but rather with companies responsible for commercial implementation.
Their business is often more robust than that of the robot manufacturers themselves. These "secondary development" firms are well-versed in customizing robots from various brands and understand the diverse requirements of downstream application scenarios, making them a critical presence in the robotics supply chain.
In contrast to the hesitation on the production side, the downstream segment of the robotics industry exhibits a phase of "prosperity." AgiBot has been particularly proactive, initiating Qitianzu, a unicorn in the robot leasing sector, and heavily incubating robot content IPs while launching robot-themed amusement parks. For Unitree Robotics, beyond education and research, dance performances have become its clearest application label.
An increasing number of robots are being deployed in scenarios such as commercial performances, exhibitions, weddings, study tours, sports competitions, and concerts, giving rise to a wave of leasing/RaaS (Robot-as-a-Service) companies. Some leading leasing firms have even completed multiple rounds of financing.
Driven by curiosity and emotional consumption needs, these robots have not yet achieved true PMF (Product-Market Fit). Instead, they are stuck between demo stages and full commercialization, forming a transitional business model similar to science popularization.
This represents a peculiar commercial phenomenon in the history of embodied intelligence development.
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The "Secondary Development" Business
Humanoid robots are high-tech products requiring precise adaptation and continuous parameter tuning and optimization. Selling a single robot is merely the first step in its usage lifecycle.
Original manufacturer robots are akin to a car built by the factory; secondary development involves adding navigation systems, upgrading audio equipment, and adjusting power output to better suit specific needs. Moreover, cars are closer to standardized products, whereas robots are inherently far more complex.
On social media, numerous robot secondary development companies have emerged, assisting end customers with action adjustments, scenario adaptation, and providing services such as leasing and scene planning.
Currently, robot prices are high, ranging from over one hundred thousand to five hundred thousand CNY. If a customer purchases only one or two units but requires extensive customized development, it becomes economically unviable for original manufacturers to organize dedicated R&D teams for each case.
Furthermore, while manufacturers achieve the "0 to 1" breakthrough, enabling robots to scale from "1 to N" and truly go live incurs significant time and trial-and-error costs. For instance, Leju Robotics deployed 15 "Kuafu" robots for Zhao Feng Electromechanical, but it took nearly a year of joint磨合 (adjustment/integration) for the robots to "learn" their tasks. Initially, the robots struggled even to grasp parts securely, requiring 15,000 repetitions just for the grasping motion.
For end customers, purchasing ties up substantial capital, making leasing a pragmatic compromise. Upon receiving demand, body manufacturers also delegate portions of the work to partners based on project scale and development difficulty. Some secondary development companies offer a 10% rebate to the body manufacturers.
In April this year, AgiBot Chairman Deng Taihua explicitly stated that after AgiBot completes the "0 to 1" phase with top-tier clients, it relies on ecosystem partners to drive "1 to N" scenario promotion. In 2025, partner sales accounted for 1/4 of AgiBot's total, with a target of 60% for 2026. This underscores the importance of "secondary merchant" partners to the industry.
Market demand is a realistic reflection of actual needs.
Last December, AgiBot established Qitianzu with Feiku Technology and others, focusing primarily on robot leasing, with Li Yiyan, founder of Feiku Technology, serving as CEO. The establishment of this company signals AgiBot's strong endorsement of the leasing model.
In May this year, Qitianzu completed Series A and A+ financing rounds. Post-financing, its valuation reached 7 billion CNY, officially joining the ranks of unicorns. Among peers in the same track, Wanji Yizu's latest post-investment valuation stands at 1 billion CNY, and JD.com's leasing self-operated store has also launched various robot leasing services.
These leasing companies function similarly to 4S dealerships in the automotive industry. As Li Yiyan noted, leasing significantly reduces trial-and-error costs and collects extensive product optimization feedback from the frontline, which feeds back into robot manufacturers' iterative improvements. Data suggests that when leasing options are available, 90% of users prefer the leasing model.
Secondary development companies act as a docking hub, connecting upstream producers with downstream demanders. They help enterprises solve most sales challenges while offering superior familiarity with various robot products, thereby providing customers with tailored solutions.
Therefore, the secondary development ecosystem is both a practical necessity and an industrial requirement. It is an inevitable outcome of the current historical stage of the robotics track.
Commercial Experiments
In the historical phase before robots entered factories and homes, society has witnessed a vigorous commercial deployment experiment.
One type is emotional experience. Data from a certain leasing platform indicates that approximately 65% of robot application orders are for one-off commercial performances, including opening ceremonies, exhibition warm-ups, and wedding ring deliveries. Specifically, these customers are not buying the robot's intelligence or labor, but rather seeking traffic attraction or satisfying the curiosity of their target audience.
In the elderly care sector, many companion and psychological counseling robots have already gone live. For example, Guangxi purchased 35 Fubao KZ100 units for welfare institutions and community elderly care centers to provide psychological counseling and daily companionship. The "Youni" small chatbot, with a monthly rent of 80 CNY, drops to 40 CNY for seniors over 75 after subsidies. It understands Mandarin and Shanghainese dialects, focusing on alleviating boredom, chatting, and companionship.
These robots have minimal requirements for mobility. Their core functionality lies in perceiving and identifying human emotions and responding with appropriate interactive feedback, aiming to achieve emotional interaction between machines and humans.
For adolescents, robots also have significant room for deployment. Robots are invited—essentially rented—to school opening ceremonies, sports meets, and children's birthday parties for warm-up and interaction purposes.
Cultural tourism and commercial performances are frequent scenarios for robots. Olaf, a robot created by Disney Imagineering in collaboration with NVIDIA and Google DeepMind, is "on duty" at Disneyland. Unitree robots are also regular performers at Wang Leehom's concerts.
AgiBot partnered with Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in Zhuhai to create the world's first large-scale embodied intelligence theme park, deploying 300 robots covering performances, study tours, guided tours, and explanations.
Another type is functional replacement, primarily involving luggage handling, hospital inquiry guidance, and bank service navigation.
In Chengdu Ocean Park, the "Aiqiu" humanoid robot serves as a store manager. Changhong Hongxi acts as a guide at the Mianyang Giant Panda Base. At the Shanghai Home Appliance Expo, robots serve as greeters and booth explainers. Such simple mechanical tasks represent scenarios where robots can currently be deployed on a large scale.
Additionally, Robot Mall and robot theaters are novel deployment formats. Over the past two years, "Robot 4S/6S/7S Stores" have proliferated, selling not just robots but experiences, leasing, training, study tours, and industrial matchmaking.
In March this year, the world's first "Dual 4S Store" (combining a "Robot 4S Store + Auto 4S Store"), a deep collaboration among Boshi Group, Mechanical Eden, and UBTECH, opened. Empowered by Beijing Yizhuang Robot Mall, the project partnered with Unitree, UBTECH, SenseTime, and LeSen. The store offers robot performances for viewing, along with sales and leasing services.
The world's first Robot 6S Store also opened in Longgang, Shenzhen, last July. Beyond sales, spare parts, after-sales service, and information feedback, it adds Share (leasing) and School (training) services.
In the entertainment sector, robots have started acting. The stage play "Robots and Their Friends," a collaboration between Luming Robotics and Shenzhen Cultural Tourism, has now achieved normalized performances.
AgiBot has also made strides in this area, launching the "Robot Martial Arts IP: Peerless Master" and a series of micro-dramas. Unitree G1 played the female lead "Lingling" in the musical "Robot Life." The film "Century Echoes: Interstellar Guardian: Xiaxia" began filming in Ningxia, indicating that robots are starting to compete with human actors.
However, these commercial scenarios are just the tip of the iceberg. Currently, robots show rapid expansion in service scenarios, quick follow-up in emotional companionship and livelihood security, resulting in a parallel landscape of B-end procurement, commercial operations, and C-end consumption.
The Brutal Ledger
Beneath the surface prosperity of downstream robot applications, the brutal laws of commerce remain unforgiving.
A year ago, daily rental rates for robots peaked at 30,000 CNY, but have now fallen to just 2,000 CNY. Last year, hot money flooded into the robot leasing industry, with rumors circulating that investments could be recouped within six months during the boom. One year later, the all-inclusive daily rental rate for mainstream humanoid robots has dropped to 3,000–6,000 CNY, basic models fall below 2,000 CNY, and bare robot dogs rent for as low as 160 CNY per day.
Prices have plummeted by 70–90%, yet the market continues to flourish. On one hand, robot shipments have increased significantly; China shipped 14,400 humanoid robots in 2025, and shipments exceeded 40,000 units in the first half of this year alone. While supply increases, models continue to iterate. Newer models offer higher computing power and stronger performance, forcing older models to lower prices for rental.
As an industry leader, Li Yiyan stated that Qitianzu's total transaction volume (GMV) over the past year was approximately 3.5 billion CNY, with a three-year goal of cumulative revenue reaching 10 billion CNY. This plan aims to create a market size equivalent to the entire industry's annual scale within three years.
Leasing appears to be a good business on the surface. After deducting various costs, the gross margin for single-day rentals is substantial. However, this assumes an "ideal state" where every machine is rented out every day.
The greatest fear in the leasing business is vacancy. With major platforms gaining support from robot enterprises and capital backing, numerous small and medium leasing companies and secondary development firms face immense challenges, forced to exit the market as vacancy rates rise sharply.
The Robot Mall format also severely tests operators' cash flow. Since its opening, the Beijing Yizhuang Robot Mall 4S Store has surpassed 60 million CNY in revenue, backed by Yizhuang state-owned capital.
The Guiyang Robot 6S Store currently faces the dilemma of monthly turnover failing to cover operational costs. Operated by Huaji Intelligent Robot Company and located in Lixing Center, the store has invested nearly 10 million CNY cumulatively. Since opening, foot traffic has significantly exceeded expectations, but there remains a 40% gap between monthly turnover and costs.
"Losses were anticipated. We reserved a three-year trial-and-error period, striving to turn profitable within one to two years," said the operator. The store targets revenue exceeding 5 million CNY in 2026 and plans for 20–50% growth in 2027.
Such stores are not isolated cases. Statistics show that by the end of July 2026, 6S stores covered 23 cities nationwide, but most rely on local policy and industrial resource support, with pure market-based profitability models still under exploration.
In terms of entertainment formats, the normalization of "Robots and Their Friends" demonstrates the ability to turn theater into a "normalized business." AgiBot employs a "one fish, multiple dishes" strategy: building robot IPs to sell hardware, export content IPs, and amplify voice through theme parks and events like "Robot Wonder Night."
However, these entertainment projects shift the commercial metric for robots from "can we sell or rent it?" to "can we consistently sell tickets?" Testing partners' attendance rates and ticket prices.
Film and television bring "breaking the circle" for robot products at the societal level: a movie, an ad, or a variety show can propel robot brands into public view, subsequently driving leasing, cultural tourism, and retail. Overall, this is part of the initial market penetration for robots.
In Conclusion
Entering 2026, the robotics track sees surging capital waves, yet robots have not massively entered living rooms or factories; instead, they have taken to stages, malls, and stadiums. This reality may have been unforeseen by many.
A calm analysis reveals this is an inevitability in the robotics industry's development. Given high prices, difficult maintenance, and uncertain application functions, consumers find it hard to simply spend money directly. Seeing robots at amusement parks, stages, or children's birthday parties before deciding to buy one home is a smoother and more ideal consumer journey.
A "limited commercialization" or "phased commercialization" centered around attention, marketing traffic, and scenario services inevitably stands between robot OEMs and household consumption.
It is foreseeable that this historical stage will persist for some time.