As a new highlight of the Spring Festival atmosphere, how long can robot rentals remain popular?

During this Spring Festival, robots were busier than humans and became the most eye - catching "symbol of the Spring Festival spirit".

The just - passed CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 2026 also had the highest density of robot appearances. From martial arts performances to skits, then to songs and dances, and micro - films, both in terms of the number of appearances and the depth of participation, new records were set. Robots also took turns to show their skills on various local Spring Festival Galas. They had no problem playing in bands or dancing the "sweeping - leg dance". Many netizens exclaimed, "Zhang Wansen, it's the robots' turn now."

This craze of "robots going to work" was even more prominent in offline activities.

By the scenic spots, robots were writing Chinese characters for good fortune for tourists; at the entrances of shopping malls, they were dancing while making children burst into laughter; in residential communities, young people were taking robots to deliver New Year goods to relatives, attracting many passers - by to watch and take photos. These scenarios that used to only appear in science fiction novels have become real - life scenes.

The robot rental market also witnessed unprecedented popularity.

Data from Qingtianzu, the robot rental platform under Zhiyuan, showed that as of February 12, the platform had received more than 1,000 orders covering the Spring Festival holiday. Based on the current orders and reservations, the overall GMV of the platform during the entire Spring Festival holiday is expected to increase by 80% compared to the previous period. By the end of the Spring Festival holiday, the cumulative number of orders on the platform is expected to exceed 5,000.

From corporate annual meetings and shopping mall openings to personal New Year greetings and proposals, robot rental has changed from a "niche novelty" to a "mass market". When technology meets the Spring Festival spirit, robots are no longer the distant "future technology" but have become the closest new friends during the Spring Festival.

However, as the Spring Festival holiday is coming to an end, can the seemingly prosperous rental demand support a sustainable new business?

1

Entering Thousands of Households

The rise of robot rental is closely related to the Spring Festival Gala.

At the 2025 Spring Festival Gala, Unitree Robotics led 16 H1 humanoid robots to do the yangge dance. The robot dance became an overnight sensation, causing the rental price to skyrocket. The daily rental price tripled several times.

There was a situation of "hard to find a single robot" in the market. At the most fanatical time, robots officially priced at 99,000 yuan could be resold by channel dealers for up to 200,000 yuan.

Under this craze, new players flocked to the market, and many individual investors also joined in one after another. They bought robots at their own expense and started rental businesses. Xiaojie, a post - 95s, was one of them. In March 2025, after waiting for many days, he finally bought a robot. After listing it for rent on Xianyu, he recovered his cost in less than half a month.

The humanoid robot rental market quickly changed from a "blue ocean" to a "red ocean", and the profit margin was gradually squeezed.

The market trend quickly shifted to oversupply. In May 2025, the average customer price of renting robots also began to decline, and it was even "halved" in the second half of the year. The rental price of a standard Unitree G1 for one event dropped sharply from more than 10,000 yuan to around 5,000 yuan.

Data showed that in 2025, more than 1,500 robot rental companies were established across the country, a year - on - year increase of 48.1% compared to 2024. As the supply of robots continued to increase and the daily rental price of a single robot decreased, more and more robots began to enter ordinary households.

People began to get used to having robots "liven up the atmosphere" in special scenarios.

From the end of the year to the beginning of spring, the robot rental market predictably entered its peak season. Xiao Wang, a salesperson in robot rental, told "Dianshang ZaiXian" that the demand was already quite large before the New Year, from the New Year's Eve countdown events to corporate annual meetings before the Spring Festival.

During the Spring Festival, the demand from scenic spots and shopping malls came one after another. After the Spring Festival, there were the first working day and the Lantern Festival. The schedules were fully booked in January.

"Sometimes a single robot has to rush to three or four events a day. It's almost overworked."

The schedules of robots were tight, and the rental prices also increased accordingly. Especially during the Spring Festival, the prices of some equipment increased by nearly 50%. However, according to Xiaojie, this price was still at a lower level compared to the same period last year. "After the peak season of this Spring Festival, the price war may be even more intense."

2

Entry of Platform Players

During the peak season of the robot rental market, not only rental merchants but also large - scale platforms entered the market one after another.

On December 22, 2025, Zhiyuan Robotics jointly launched the "Qingtianzu" open - style rental platform with embodied intelligence companies such as Feikuo Technology. It adopted the "shared rental + platform - based scheduling" model, allowing users to reserve robots of different brands according to different usage scenarios. The official slogan was to make robot rental as convenient as "shared power banks".

In less than a month, the Wanjiyizu Robot Rental Ecosystem Platform also announced its launch. "Currently, there is a strong demand for renting robots in the background. Buying robots may not be the best solution. Renting may be the practical choice for most users," said Cai Yi, the co - founder and CEO of Wanjiyizu, in public.

The launch of the two major platforms dealt a blow to individual rental merchants. Although the two platforms had different focuses on robot products, their pricing was generally lower than the scattered market level at that time.

Taking the Zhiyuan humanoid robot Lingxi X2 Youth Edition as an example, the market rental price was mostly 3,000 yuan per day. The same model was priced at 2,358 yuan per day on the Wanjiyizu platform and 2,199 yuan per day on Qingtianzu, including the labor cost and travel expenses of engineers.

To quickly open up the market, Qingtianzu also launched a "1 - yuan flash rental" activity during the New Year's Day in 2026. According to its disclosure, three weeks after its launch, the number of registered users exceeded 200,000, and the average daily rental orders were stable at more than 200.

As the Spring Festival is a "big peak season", rental platforms naturally won't miss it. Qingtianzu launched the "999 - yuan national robot experience plan" covering fixed scenarios such as New Year greetings, proposals, and parent - child interactions. The price was low enough, and the spreadability was strong enough. Data showed that the orders of this plan accounted for about 15% of the total platform transactions.

In addition, according to Qingtianzu data, about 30% of the platform's first - time rental users during the Spring Festival meant that one in every three orders came from new users who had never contacted robots before.

It's not hard to see that through the "attracting - customer products" like the 999 - yuan plan, the platform is quickly building its brand awareness, attracting new users' attention, and seizing market share by lowering the decision - making threshold.

Besides attracting new users, the demand for robot rental has also begun to spread rapidly from core cities across the country. Data showed that first - tier cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen are still the main destinations for high - price orders and complex scenarios. However, new first - tier cities such as Suzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, and Chongqing have seen a significant increase in orders, and third - and fourth - tier cities such as Fuyang have also entered the top list of orders.

As robot rental spreads to more extensive areas, the market scale will also experience accelerated expansion.

According to incomplete statistics from the Qingtianzu platform, the domestic robot rental market scale will exceed 1 billion yuan in 2025 and is expected to be no less than 10 billion yuan in 2026. Li Yiyan, the CEO of Qingtianzu, once publicly stated that most domestic robot manufacturers had not achieved mass production in 2025. It is expected that the number of domestic robot manufacturers achieving mass production will gradually increase in 2026, forming a certain market scale.

The current robot rental market has also formed three major mainstream types: one is companies originally engaged in equipment or performance equipment rental, which expanded their business after the popularity of humanoid robots; the second is the "free market" where transactions are made through online group chats and social platforms; the last is the open - style rental platforms that emerged in the past few months.

As the classification of players becomes clearer, the rules of the robot rental market have also evolved from the initial rough operation to a comprehensive evaluation focusing on technology, channels, services, and other aspects.

3

A New "Survival Formula"

At this year's Spring Festival Gala, the humanoid robots on the stage were not only from Unitree Robotics. Magic Atom, Galaxy General, and Songyan Power also started to "compete on the stage".

Compared with the audience's amazement, rental merchants are more concerned about which company's robots have higher stability and stronger interaction capabilities and can stand out in the rental market in the new year.

Everyone clearly understands that the peak of the robot industry's popularity in 2026 may be on the night of the Spring Festival Gala. This Spring Festival Gala may become a key turning point for embodied intelligence to move from the laboratory to large - scale commercial use, rapidly promoting national - level market education and enhancing the valuation and attention of the industry.

Qingtianzu was the first to prepare to receive the traffic from the Spring Festival Gala. The platform simultaneously launched the activity of "renting the same models as those on the Spring Festival Gala". For small and medium - sized teams, although they also sorted out the robot resources related to the Spring Festival Gala in advance and prepared for the subsequent increase in demand, Xiaojie and some of his peers had little intention of hoarding "Spring Festival Gala - style robots" in advance.

"The high unit price and strong market uncertainty are still the main reasons," Xiaojie told reporters. In the face of intensified industry competition, it is too risky for a small team like his to hoard goods rashly, and it may not be possible to recover the cost in time.

It is certain that after the Spring Festival, the audience's requirements for robot performances will become higher and higher.

"In the past few days, I've seen many robots in shopping malls and communities. There are those dancing and writing. The technological progress is really amazing," said Ms. Shi, a person born in the 1970s, to "Dianshang ZaiXian". "Last year, I thought it was very novel to see a robot wave its hand on the road. Now, I'm used to the single - robot shows and won't even take out my phone to record anymore."

Xiao Wang, a salesperson in robot rental, also said that as early as the second half of last year, customers hoped that the rented robots for performances could show more complex performance abilities, such as interacting with the host verbally and performing customized dances in more new modes.

"We need to solve three major problems: content homogeneity, service standardization, and cost optimization," said a rental merchant. As the audience gradually moves beyond simple curiosity, the industry is entering a new era of shifting from "catching eyes" to "competing in internal strength", and more efforts need to be made in performance planning and service experience.

This is a fast - changing new industry. Rental merchants are "crossing the river by feeling the stones" while closely monitoring market changes.

From the Spring Festival Gala stage to the streets and alleys, robot rental is transforming from a "short - term craze" to a "long - term service ecosystem". In the future, only players who continuously innovate and comprehensively upgrade in terms of operation, channels, and services can win more living space for themselves.

Text/ Tang Guo

Editor/ Xu Yijia

This article is from the WeChat official account "Dianshang ZaiXian" (ID: dianshangmj), author: Tang Guo. Republished by 36Kr with permission.