Robot downstream business observation: daily rental prices fall from 30,000 yuan to 2,000 yuan

While the robotics industry is still debating when it can truly be deployed, the downstream looks quite different.

Today, when a job seeker leaves a message asking whether a so-called "robot company" is still hiring for testing positions, what they are facing may not be a robot OEM like AgiBot or Galbot, but more likely one of the companies responsible for commercial deployment.

Their business is even hotter than that of the robot OEMs. These "secondary development" companies are well versed in the secondary development of robots from various brands and are also familiar with the various needs of downstream application scenarios. They have become a fairly important presence in the robotics industry chain.

Unlike the hesitation on the production side, the downstream of robotics has shown a phased "prosperity." Among them, AgiBot has invested quite actively, not only initiating the establishment of the robot rental unicorn QingTianZu, but also vigorously incubating robot content IPs and opening robot-themed parks; besides education and research, dance performances have also become the clearest label for Unitree's application layer.

More and more robots are pouring into scenarios such as commercial performances, exhibitions, weddings, study tours, sports competitions, and concerts, spawning a batch of rental/RaaS (Robot as a Service) companies, with some leading rental enterprises even completing multiple rounds of financing.

Driven by demand for novelty and emotional consumption, these robots have not found a true PMF (Product-Market Fit); rather, they are stuck between Demo and commercial deployment, forming a transitional business akin to science popularization.

This is also a rather peculiar commercial phenomenon in the history of embodied intelligence development.

01

The "Secondary Development" Business

A humanoid robot is a high-tech product that requires precise adaptation and continuous parameter tuning and optimization. Selling a robot is only the first step in its specific use process.

An original-manufacturer robot is like a car built by the manufacturer; secondary development means installing navigation, replacing the audio system, and adjusting power output on that car to make it better suit one's needs. Moreover, cars are closer to standardized products, while robots are inherently far more complex than cars.

On social media, there are already many robot secondary development companies that help end customers adjust movements, adapt scenarios, and provide services such as leasing and scenario planning.

Image: Robot secondary development information on a short-video platform (Source: Douyin)

Currently, a robot is expensive, with prices ranging from over 100,000 to 500,000 yuan. If a customer buys only one or two units but needs a large amount of customized development, and the original manufacturer organizes a dedicated R&D team for this, the math simply doesn't work out.

Moreover, manufacturers have completed "from 0 to 1," but for robots to achieve "from 1 to N" and ultimately truly take up posts, huge time and trial-and-error costs are still required. For example, Leju configured 15 "Kuafu" robots for Zhaofeng Electromechanical, but to make the robots "learn" these tasks, the two sides worked together for nearly a year. At first, the robots even had difficulty gripping parts steadily, and the gripping motion alone was trained repeatedly 15,000 times.

Image: Humanoid robots working on the Zhaofeng production line

For end customers, purchasing ties up a large amount of capital and is not cost-effective, so turning to leasing is a good compromise. After receiving demand, the body manufacturers will also allocate part of the work to partners based on project scale and development difficulty. Some secondary development companies even give 10% rebates to the body manufacturers.

In April this year, AgiBot Chairman Deng Taihua explicitly stated that after AgiBot completes "0 to 1" with leading customers, it still needs to rely on ecosystem partners to achieve "1 to N" scenario promotion. In 2025, AgiBot's partner sales accounted for one quarter, and the target for 2026 is 60%. This shows the importance of "second-hand dealer" partners to the industry.

Market demand is a true reflection of reality.

At the end of last year, AgiBot and Feikuo Technology and others established QingTianZu, mainly engaged in robot leasing, with Feikuo Technology founder Li Yiyan serving as CEO. The establishment of this company marks AgiBot's high recognition of the leasing model.

In May this year, QingTianZu completed Series A and A+ financing. After this round of financing, its valuation reached 7 billion yuan, officially joining the ranks of unicorns. Among players in the same track, Wanjiiyizu's latest post-investment valuation is 1 billion yuan, and JD Leasing's self-operated store has also launched various robot leasing services.

These leasing companies are like 4S stores in the automotive industry chain. As Li Yiyan said, leasing not only greatly reduces trial-and-error costs but also collects a large amount of frontline product optimization feedback to supply back to robot manufacturers for product iteration. Data shows that as long as a leasing option is provided, 90% of users will prioritize the leasing model.

Secondary development companies are equivalent to a docking hub, connecting manufacturers upstream and demand-side users downstream, and can help enterprises solve most sales problems. At the same time, secondary development companies are more familiar with various robot products and can better provide customers with suitable solutions.

Therefore, the secondary development ecosystem is needed by reality and by the industry. It is an inevitable product of the historical stage of development of the robotics track.

02

Commercial Experiment

At a historical stage when robots have not yet entered factories and homes, society has set off a vigorous commercial deployment experiment.

One type is emotional experience. Data from a certain leasing platform shows that about 65% of robot application orders are one-off commercial performances, including opening receptions, exhibition warm-ups, wedding ring delivery, and so on. To be precise, these customers are not buying the intelligence and labor of robots, but rather attracting traffic or satisfying certain novelty-seeking psychology of their target customers.

In the eldercare sector, many companion and psychological counseling robots are already on duty. For example, Guangxi purchased 35 Fubao KZ100 units and deployed them in welfare homes and community eldercare centers to provide psychological counseling and daily companionship for the elderly; the "Youni" small chat companion robot rents for 80 yuan per month, and only 40 yuan after subsidies for people over 75. It can understand Mandarin and Shanghainese, and its main focus is relieving boredom, chatting, and companionship.

This type of robot has basically no requirements for mobility; its main functional points lie in being able to perceive and recognize human emotions and make corresponding interactive feedback based on them. Its core demand is to achieve emotional interaction between machines and humans.

For teenagers, robots also have a lot of room to play a role. At opening ceremonies, sports meets, and even children's birthday parties, robots are also invited—that is, rented to warm up the atmosphere and interact.

Cultural tourism and commercial performances are also scenes where robots frequently appear. The Olaf robot built by the Disney Imagineering team together with NVIDIA and Google DeepMind is "on duty" at Disneyland; Unitree robots are also frequent guests at Wang Leehom's concerts.

Zhiyuan also partnered with Zhuhai Chimelong to create the world's first large-scale embodied intelligence theme park, deploying 300 robots and covering performances, educational research, guided tours, explanations, and other projects.

At Chengdu Ocean Park, the "Aiqiu" humanoid robot can serve as store manager; Changhong Hongxi serves as a guide at the Mianyang China Giant Panda Garden, and at the Shanghai Home Appliances Expo it served as a welcome etiquette robot and booth explainer. This type of simple, mechanical work is currently a scenario in which robots can be deployed at scale.

In addition, Robot Mall and robot theaters are two relatively novel forms of implementation. Over the past two years, "robot 4S/6S/7S stores" have continued to emerge. They sell not only robots, but also experiences, leasing, training, educational research, and industry matchmaking.

In March this year, the world's first "dual 4S store" ("robot 4S store + car 4S store"), deeply cooperated on by Boshi Group, Mechanical Eden, and UBTECH, opened. The project is empowered by Beijing Yizhuang Robot Mall and has reached cooperation with companies such as Unitree, UBTECH, SenseTime, and Lesen. In the store, visitors can not only watch robot performances, but also receive robot sales and leasing services.

The world's first robot 6S store also opened in Longgang, Shenzhen, in July last year. In addition to sales, spare parts, after-sales service, and information feedback, it adds Share (leasing) and School (training) services.

In the literary and artistic track, some robots have already become actors. The stage play "Robots and Their Friends," a collaboration between Luming Robotics and Shenzhen Culture and Tourism, has already achieved regular performances.

Zhiyuan has also made some arrangements in this regard, releasing the "robot wuxia IP Peerless Masters" and launching a micro-short drama series; Unitree G1 plays the female lead "Lingling" in the musical "Robot Life"; the film "A Century of Echoes: Interstellar Guardianship: Xia Xia" has started production in Ningxia, and robots have already begun competing for actors' jobs.

However, the above commercial scenarios are merely the tip of the iceberg of robot applications. At present, robots show a situation of expanding volume in service scenarios, rapidly catching up in emotional companionship and livelihood security, and the three layers of B-end procurement, commercial operations, and C-end consumption proceeding in parallel.

03

The Cruel Ledger

Beneath the prosperous appearance of downstream robot applications, the cruel laws of business have never ceased to apply.

A year ago, the daily rental price of robots could reach as high as 30,000 yuan, but now it has fallen to only 2,000 yuan. Last year, hot money rushed into the robot leasing business. At its hottest, the saying "payback in half a year" circulated in the industry. A year later, the all-inclusive daily rent for mainstream humanoid robots has dropped to 3,000–6,000 yuan, basic models have fallen below 2,000 yuan, and the bare-machine price for robot dogs is as low as 160 yuan per day.

Prices have fallen by 70% to 90%, yet the market is increasingly prosperous. On the one hand, robot shipments have increased substantially: in 2025, China's humanoid robot shipments were 14,400 units, while shipments in the first half of this year alone exceeded 40,000 units. As supply increases, models are constantly iterating. New models have higher computing power and stronger performance, forcing older models to cut rental prices.

As a leading company in the industry, Li Yiyan said that Qingtianzu's total transaction value (GMV) over the past nearly one year was about 3.5 billion yuan, and its goal for the next three years is cumulative revenue of 10 billion yuan. That is equivalent to planning to create the current entire industry's annual market size within three years.

On the surface, leasing looks like a good business. After deducting various costs, the gross profit per day of leasing is substantial. However, this assumes the "ideal state" that every machine can be rented out every day—assuming someone rents every day.

The leasing business fears vacancy most. After leading platforms obtain support from robot companies and capital backing, a large number of small and medium-sized leasing companies and secondary development companies will face huge challenges, and after vacancy rates rise sharply, they will have no choice but to exit the market.

The Robot Mall format also severely tests operators' capital chains. The Beijing Yizhuang Robot Mall robot 4S store has exceeded 60 million yuan in revenue since opening, backed by Yizhuang state-owned capital.

The robot 6S store in Guiyang is currently facing the dilemma that monthly cash flow cannot cover operating costs. This store, located in Lixing Center, is operated by Huaji Intelligent Robot Company and has accumulated investment of nearly 10 million yuan. Since opening, store foot traffic has significantly exceeded expectations, but monthly cash flow still falls 40% short of costs.

"Losses are expected. We have set aside a three-year trial-and-error period for ourselves and strive to turn a profit within one to two years," the operator said. The store's goal for 2026 is revenue of more than 5 million yuan, and in 2027 it plans to achieve growth of 20% to 50%.

Such stores are not isolated cases. Statistics show that by the end of July 2026, 6S stores had covered 23 cities nationwide, but most stores rely on local policy and industrial resource support, and a purely market-driven profit model is still being explored.

In the entertainment sector, "Robots and Their Friends" has become a regular fixture, showing that the theater has been turned into a "regular business"; AgiBot, meanwhile, takes a "one fish, many dishes" approach: by building robot IP, it not only sells hardware but also exports content IP, while expanding its reach through theme parks, "Robot Wonder Night" and other events.

But these entertainment projects shift the commercial metric for robots from "can they be sold or rented" to "can tickets be sold continuously," testing partners' occupancy rates and ticket prices.

What film and television actually bring to the application side is the robot product's "breakout" at the social level: a movie, an advertisement, or a variety show can bring a robot brand into the public eye, which in turn drives leasing, cultural tourism, and retail. Overall, this is also part of robots completing their initial popularization in the market.

04

Final thoughts

Entering 2026, the capital tide in the robot sector is surging, but robots have not entered living rooms or factories on a large scale; instead, they have first taken to stages, shopping malls, and gymnasiums. This may be a reality that many people did not anticipate.

A calm analysis shows that this is in some sense inevitable in the development of the robot industry. With high prices, difficult repairs, and application functions not yet determined, it is hard for consumers to simply wave their money; taking a closer look at amusement parks, on stage, or even at a child's birthday party, and then making up their minds to buy one for home, is a smoother and more ideal consumption state.

A "limited commercialization" or "phased commercialization" centered on attention, marketing traffic, and scenario services has inevitably come between robot OEMs and household consumption.

It is foreseeable that this historical stage is destined to last for some time.

This article comes from the WeChat public account "Juchao WAVE," author: Xie Zefeng, editor: Yang Xuran, published with authorization from 36Kr.