Tanzt Yushu Robotics als Begleitdancer für Jay Chou? Wang Xingxing will auch in die Unterhaltungsbranche vorstoßen.

Unitree Technology, which was accused of its robot dancing and boxing shows having no development significance, responded to the doubters with a cooperation.

Recently, MegaStar Legend, the so - called "Jay Chou concept stock", issued an announcement stating that its wholly - owned subsidiary, Star Creation Art (Kunshan) Cultural and Entertainment Co., Ltd., signed a cooperation agreement with Unitree Technology.

Image source: MegaStar Legend's announcement

The announcement revealed that the two parties will cooperate in the development and commercialization of quadruped robot dogs/robots with companion functions and social attributes. Among them, MegaStar Legend will be responsible for the core IP planning, design, and AI interaction of the cooperative products, and lead the global marketing strategy, etc.; Unitree Technology will be responsible for the technology, hardware R & D and production of the cooperative products, and the R & D of relevant application programs, etc. The two parties will jointly be responsible for the promotion and channel sales of the cooperative products.

Affected by this news, MegaStar Legend was once sought after by the capital market. Wind data shows that from July 30th to August 4th, the company's stock price fluctuated by 26.25%.

This cross - border cooperation is not simply an IP co - branding. MegaStar Legend revealed that the scope of this cooperation is not limited to the company's in - house artist resources but will also extend to a wider range of artists to expand IP cooperation opportunities. In addition, it will dig deep into the commercial value of intelligent robots in scenarios such as concerts and shows.

In other words, MegaStar Legend hopes to achieve a qualitative leap of star IP from a "tool" to a "companion" in the consumer robot track with Unitree Technology. Regarding this cooperation, Yuanmeihui sent letters to MegaStar Legend and Unitree Technology respectively, but as of press time, no response was received.

Imagine that in Jay Chou's future concerts, there will not only be the familiar melodies for fans but also a group of quadruped robot dogs with the "Mr. Zhou" IP personality dancing alongside. These robots equipped with AI interaction systems can also generate personalized feedback based on fans' behaviors. What kind of market imagination space will such an emotional incarnation of star IP bring?

01

The Star IP Business

As a "Jay Chou concept stock", MegaStar Legend's core asset is the second - dimensional image of "Mr. Zhou" created around Jay Chou.

Financial report data shows that in 2024, MegaStar Legend achieved a revenue of 584 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 35.75%; the net profit was 50 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 62.4%. Among them, the IP creation and operation and new retail businesses achieved revenues of 314 million yuan and 270 million yuan respectively. The former accounted for about 53.8% of the total revenue, surpassing the new retail business for the first time to become the company's main source of income.

Image source: MegaStar Legend's 2024 annual report

The rapid growth of the IP creation and operation business is mainly due to MegaStar Legend's cooperation with stars and KOLs in the past year to develop high - quality IP content such as "The Way of Jay 2" and "Happy Together". This not only enhanced the brand influence but also achieved diversified monetization through IP licensing and the sales of related products. In 2024, MegaStar Legend's star IP management business contributed 65 million yuan in revenue.

Even so, it cannot cover up the development bottleneck faced by traditional IP derivatives. Especially in the context of "fragmented experience and single scenario", whether it is peripheral products or content consumption, it is difficult to break through the limitation of one - way communication and lacks continuous emotional connection.

Cooperating with Unitree Technology to create IP robots with emotional attributes is expected to break this limitation.

According to institutional forecasts, the global consumer robot market size will soar from 35.8 billion US dollars in 2024 to 101.5 billion US dollars in 2032. Among them, the Chinese quadruped robot market has the fastest growth rate, with a scale of about 470 million yuan in 2023 and is expected to reach 850 million yuan in 2025.

However, beneath the prosperous appearance, consumer robots also face experience dilemmas. For example, floor - sweeping robots can only perform mechanical cleaning, and educational robots can only answer questions in a programmed way. The functional stacking and technological competition cover up the lack of emotional warmth.

MegaStar Legend has accurately captured this gap. By deeply binding with top artists such as Jay Chou and Liu Genghong, the company has a star IP ecosystem covering more than 250 million fans. Its core asset, "Mr. Zhou", carries the deep emotional connection of fans.

Unitree Technology is the leading player in the popular quadruped robot field. According to GGII data, in 2024, Unitree's annual sales of quadruped robots reached 23,700 units, accounting for 69.75% of the global market share; in the humanoid robot field, Unitree delivered more than 1,500 units in 2024, ranking among the global top echelon.

Recently, at the promotion conference for the construction of an innovation high - ground for the artificial intelligence industry held in Hangzhou High - tech Zone (Binjiang), it was announced that the Hangzhou Embodied Intelligence Application Pilot Base would be launched, and Wang Xingxing, the founder of Unitree Technology, was appointed as the chief scientist. Two months ago, Wang Xingxing was just elected as the first rotating chairman of the Hangzhou Embodied Intelligence Industry Alliance.

This cooperation between MegaStar Legend and Unitree Technology may seem cross - border, but in fact, it directly addresses the industry pain points. While global technology giants are obsessed with algorithm iteration, emotional value is becoming the ultimate battlefield for intelligent hardware.

Market data reveals the explosiveness of this trend. According to a report by ARK Invest, the global market size of "AI + emotional companionship" is expected to skyrocket from the current 30 million US dollars to 70 - 150 billion US dollars, with a growth rate of 2,300 - 5,000 times and a compound annual growth rate of 200% - 236%.

This blue ocean, ignored by traditional hardware manufacturers, is reshaping the valuation logic of the consumer electronics industry.

02

New Emotional Bonds

The cooperation between MegaStar Legend and Unitree Technology is essentially a genetic recombination of "emotional power" and "rational power". Different from the traditional IP licensing model, the two parties have built an innovative framework of "full - chain in - depth collaboration".

Among them, MegaStar Legend acts as the "emotional system architect", leading the product IP planning, design, and AI interaction system development. For example, it may simulate Jay Chou's voice characteristics, behavioral habits, and even stage movements and encode them into a data model, enabling the robot to generate personalized feedback. It can automatically play "Rice Field" in the morning to wake up the owner, act as a fitness coach like Liu Genghong during exercise, and switch to the "Quiet" mode at night to accompany the user to sleep.

Unitree Technology acts as the "body forger", focusing on hardware R & D and production. Its newly developed joint motors provide a physical basis for emotional expression; the optimization of motion algorithms may enable the robot to accurately reproduce the complex dance steps of "Nunchaku", and the upgrade of sensors further reduces the environmental perception delay, ensuring natural and smooth interaction.

This "double - helix model" may break the linear relationship of "one - party leading and the other - party cooperating" in traditional cross - border cooperation and form a closed - loop ecosystem of IP operation, technology R & D, and channel sharing. When Jay Chou's humorous characteristics are materialized through the AI dialogue engine and the robot dog can imitate the artist's signature gestures, the technological tool has completed its transformation into an emotional companion.

Currently, how to cross the gap from technological novelty to daily necessity is a core dilemma commonly faced by consumer - grade robots. Some market views have pointed out that humanoid robots should start from cultural and entertainment scenarios, which conforms to the law of new technology promotion. Just as airplanes started from performances in the early days of their invention and then gradually became practical.

MegaStar Legend's layout precisely echoes this path. In 2024, the total revenue of the Chinese performance market reached 7.9629 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 7.61%. Among them, concerts became the core consumption engine. At the same time, the global entertainment robot market size is expected to increase from 2.39 billion US dollars in 2024 to 18.14 billion US dollars in 2033, with a compound annual growth rate of 25.23%. At the intersection of the two, "tech - based performing arts" is giving birth to new species.

The core value of the performing arts scenario lies in its "emotional amplifier" effect. Imagine that in Jay Chou's concert, a phalanx of robots reproduces the classic dance steps, transforming the hardware into an emotional medium; in variety show live - broadcasts, robots with the "Mr. Zhou" personality interact with the audience in real - time as "virtual guests"; in the IP physical store, robots act as shopping guides, stimulating consumers' impulse to buy through talent shows...

What's more ingenious is its leverage mechanism: a concert can attract tens of thousands of on - site audiences and millions of online traffic, providing a natural test - field and exposure platform for the products. In the future, if MegaStar Legend implants robot performances into programs such as "The Way of Jay 3" and "Liu Genghong's Music Radio", it can continuously divert traffic to the hardware through content IP.

When fans remotely control the robots in the concert to dance through the mobile APP, technology has completed its ultimate evolution from a tool to an emotional carrier.

03

A Different Way of "Harvesting"

The traditional IP derivative model has reached its ceiling. Static products such as figurines and posters can hardly carry deep emotions and face the bottlenecks of single scenarios and low repurchase rates. The cooperation between MegaStar Legend and Unitree Technology has created a brand - new paradigm of "emotion as a service".

Actually, there were signs of this cross - border cooperation earlier. Four days before the cooperation announcement, MegaStar Legend announced the completion of a rights issue, placing 37.5245 million shares at a price of HK$9.13 per share, raising a net amount of about HK$324 million.

Image source: MegaStar Legend's announcement

In the specific implementation, MegaStar Legend plans to invest 38.2% of the total net proceeds, that is, HK$124 million, to expand the retail channel network, covering vending machines and intelligent mechanical equipment. These terminals are not only sales points but also touchpoints for emotional services. In the future, consumers may be able to interact with the "Mr. Zhou" robot in front of the vending machine, experience personalized talent shows, and then decide whether to purchase the full - function service. This "try - before - you - buy" model is expected to further improve user conversion rates.

When emotional connection becomes an operable digital asset, IP business shifts from "traffic harvesting" to long - term value storage in the "emotional bank".

The cooperation between MegaStar Legend and Unitree Technology comes at a technological critical point, but there are many hidden dangers in the emotional technology field.

For example, there is an ethical dilemma regarding emotional privacy. When the robot continuously records users' emotional data, the database of star IP may become a high - risk area for privacy leakage. The fact that some AI companies have been unpopular in Europe and the United States due to data compliance issues is a warning.

Another example is the double - edged sword of IP dependence. Most of MegaStar Legend's revenue is strongly associated with Jay Chou's IP. If the artist's image fluctuates, the hardware carrying his personality may depreciate instantly, which is in sharp contrast to Disney's IP matrix that disperses risks.

In addition, global technology giants have also started to compete in this track. For example, Sony has restarted the Aibo robot dog, Disney has developed a Mickey Mouse emotional robot; UBTECH, the leading player in humanoid robots, previously cooperated with Manchester City Football Club to launch a football robot.

The essence of this game is actually the contradiction between emotional standardization and personalization.

However, when the cold mechanical joints start to convey the warmth of the idol's palm and the algorithm learns to play "Sunny Day" on a rainy night, technology has completed its ultimate leap from conquering the market to conquering people's hearts.

On the journey of the global consumer robot industry towards a scale of tens of billions of US dollars, those companies that understand people's hearts earliest may define the next decade.

Some pictures are quoted from the Internet. Please inform us if there is any infringement and we will delete them.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Yuanmeihui", author: Xie Chunsheng, editor: Su Huai, published by 36Kr with authorization.