Unitree robots can't be rented

Text丨Huang Yiting

Editor丨Lu Zhen

At the beginning of 2025, Unitree Robot will become the busiest "worker". CCTV's Spring Festival Gala performed a Yangge twisting performance, which put this "human-like" big piece of iron on the "top stream" throne, and shopping malls, exhibitions, and brands eager for traffic vied to "invite" it to stand on the platform, even if it was just two steps away, it could gain a lot of attention.

Humanoid robot rentals exploded amid such demand. In February, the bosses of the first batch of Yushu G1 rented out at a price of 15,000 yuan a day, which was in short supply, and they returned to their capital in a week, earning more than 200,000 yuan in half a month, and the schedule was scheduled for May.

At that time, it seemed that this was almost a profitable business, and Xu Chong also wanted a piece of the pie. In March, he successively ordered one Unitree G1 and two Zhongqing PM01, the former arrived in early to mid-May, and the latter arrived in July.

What makes Xu Chong uneasy is that two months later, the humanoid robot rental market seems to be shrinking, and the demand is not as much as he imagined. Since March, after he tentatively issued a lease advertisement for Unitree G1, there are only a handful of buyers who have contacted him, even if there are holidays such as Women's Day, Qingming Festival, Labor Day, etc., the actual orders (including reservations in May) from March to April are only three or four orders. Helplessly, there was no stock, so he introduced these orders to his peers.

The novelty gradually faded, and Unitree Robot seemed to be unable to rent out. Behind the ups and downs of the craze, people have found that humanoid robots can do too little, and they are still too far away from really entering people's lives.

Unitree robot as a gimmick

Dressed in a big Northeast flower jacket, spinning, jumping, and throwing handkerchiefs, the humanoid robot appeared in front of the general public for the first time, standing on the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and the flexible dancing in front of the stage and the clumsy cuteness behind the scenes have become the focus of discussion among netizens.

On March 1, a shopping mall in Hangzhou cooperated with Unitree Technology to hold an offline event, and robots and robot dogs appeared on the scene. On that day, the mall was overcrowded, and they were all looking forward to shaking hands with Unitree Robot; Outside the atrium, the upstairs fence is also lying on the stomach to watch the lively customers. The next day, Sunday, the customer who did not catch up with the previous day's event was a little regretful and left a message to the mall: "There is no event today, both halls are empty." ”

"Can you contact Yushu to do marketing planning together?" After resuming work after the year, Komori received news from brand customers. She has been in the advertising business for ten years, and chasing hot spots to create ideas is the basic quality of advertising people.

The customer's needs made Komori see business opportunities. She contacted a partner with the ability to develop humanoid robots, and the two sides established a joint venture, Hangzhou Zhouke Technology Co., Ltd., to purchase 5 Unitree G1-U2 humanoid robots that can be redeveloped, each of which is 249,000 yuan, and the price of external rental is set at about 20,000 yuan a day.

More than a month has passed, and customers have been coming to the door. Most of them are schools, shopping malls, scenic spots, and exhibition companies, and renting humanoid robots to stand on the platform and shaking hands with people can attract a lot of eyeballs and attract a wave of people.

● At an event in Chengdu, Unitree Robot interacted with the audience. Source: Visual China

Komori's advantage is that the purchased Unitree G1-U2 can be used for secondary development. A customer took the video of the Spring Festival Gala performance and asked her if she could make the robot dance, and Komori conveyed it to the team in charge of development, and after more than a month, the robot learned; There are also customers who want the robot to drink saliva, send manuscripts, and cut ribbons, and these simple operations can basically be satisfied after debugging.

When it comes to drainage, there are hardly any customers who are not satisfied. "It's pretty fresh standing there." Komori said. In mid-April, the schedule of 4 robots for the May Day holiday has been booked, and the price is twice the daily price.

Under the emotional backdrop of the public opinion field, Unitree Robot has led the entire humanoid robot industry. CVSource investment data shows that as of March 29, the number of financing events in the robot track since 2025 has reached 102, far exceeding the 75 in the same period last year; Among them, there were more than 20 financings involving humanoid robots/embodied intelligent robots, compared to less than 10 in the same period last year.

The humanoid robot half marathon held on April 19 added firewood. As of April 30, the A-share humanoid robot sector (BK1184) has risen 32.3% this year.

Business with no repeat customers

In April, although the drainage effect of Unitree Robot was still effective, the repurchase rate was extremely limited. Occasionally, a few repeat purchases are exhibition customers, and humanoid robots are used to attract traffic at different exhibitions.

The logic is easy to understand. The flip side of the novelty is that, as with most marketing plans, the same idea will not be used again after it has been used. Humanoid robot rental is a one-time consumption, and after the novelty is satisfied, there are almost no repeat customers.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the low-priced rental market, where rental prices and demand are declining significantly after the first wave of traffic has been fragmented.

In February, the Unitree G1 that can not be redeveloped, its daily rental price is 8000-15000 yuan, calculated at the price of a single unit of 99,000 yuan, the merchant can return the cost of renting for a maximum of 13 days;

Xu Chong is a practitioner in the Internet industry, in more than a month after the Spring Festival Gala in 2025, he witnessed Unitree Robot becoming popular on the Internet, and the first batch of bosses who did Unitree Robot leasing business were very active, so he also placed an order for Unitree G1, advertised on social platforms, and was ready to test the water.

The result of testing the water made Xu Chong's heart sink, compared with the heat in the field of public opinion, the actual demand for Unitree robots is not as much as imagined, and few people ask him about renting humanoid robots. Even if there are holidays such as Women's Day, Qingming Festival, Labor Day, etc., the orders that are really reached in March and April (including the reservation orders in May) are only three or four orders, and the Utree G1 he ordered will not arrive until the first half of May, and he can only introduce these orders to his peers who are in stock.

● During the Qingming holiday, in the OCT Fantasy Resort in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, tourists interacted with the Unitree Technology robot "Nezha" in the scenic spot. Source: Visual China

In addition to Unitree G1, out of interest in humanoid robots, Xu Chong also ordered two Zhongqing robots PM01 that can be redeveloped, and the construction period is scheduled for July. He wasn't quite sure what the market would be like.

Zhang Zhenyao, an entrepreneur of Post-Zero (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., also felt the unsaturation of leasing orders. He has eight robot dogs and a Unitree G1, of which the price of Unitree G1 is 8,000 yuan a day, and it is rented out only two days a week on average in April, and it is idle at other times.

Zhang Zhenyao explained that he did not operate this business as his main business at first, but only as a source of pocket money, and now he finds that there may be room to make money and is increasing his investment.

However, the investment is always within a controllable range, and they do not dare to judge how far the humanoid robot rental can go, and "short-term" has become the current consensus.

A very important reason is that, unlike the concept film Nengwen Nengwu, for most enterprises and individuals, the current benefits that humanoid robots can bring are very limited, and it is more about the public's tolerance and curiosity about new things, and the business formed around attention. And this kind of attention buying and selling and the popularization of the concept of humanoid robots form a paradox - when the general public knows more and more about humanoid robots, they become commonplace with it, and the freshness and attention are reduced, it will not be able to play a drainage role, and more practical functions have yet to be developed.

According to Komori's plan, after the popularity of humanoid robots subsides, the partner in charge of secondary development will concentrate on the research and development of humanoid robots. She believes that the current leasing is only a short-term way to make profits, and it is the dividend brought by traffic, and the future market will rely more on the research and development of robot software or functions, just like mobile applications are to mobile phones.

Only then can the rental market really develop.

The idealist's game

Humanoid robot leasing seems to be a mirror of the entire industry, which reflects the gap between ideals and reality.

A customer once asked Komori if she could let the robot perform a sweeping leg, but she could only regret refusing. For humanoid robots, a simple human action, squatting, stretching legs, and exerting force, may require software and hardware to cooperate with debugging for weeks or even months, and there is only a certain probability that it will be successful; The 2025 Spring Festival Gala "Twisting Yangge" performance, Unitree Technology rehearsed for three or four months.

On April 19, the humanoid robot half marathon held in Yizhuang, Beijing, visualized this gap, and with the careful preparation of 20 teams, the humanoid robots still appeared "flat falls", starting from the starting point, and losing control. Phoenix Technology reported that for robots, the marathon is not a physical challenge, but a "technical triathlon". The 21.0975 kilometers on the track cover a variety of terrains such as asphalt roads, flats and slopes, or sharp bends, and robots are also required to cope with various extreme challenges such as sensor overload, joint overheating, and battery life.

● 2025 Beijing Yizhuang Humanoid Robot Half Marathon, Unitree Robot competes with the help of operators. Source: Visual China

Under the technology, the prospect of commercialization is a factor that investors have to consider. At this juncture, the question of who really needs humanoid robots becomes a question.

On this question, Zhu Xiaohu, managing partner of GSR Ventures, once bluntly said: "Now it is a humanoid robot that will turn its head, but where is the commercialization? In the past, the main market demand was to do research, either universities or your competitors, but today there is a new customer - the central enterprise buys it back to do the front desk display. But this kind of customer is not a customer that we like, what we like is sustainable commercialization that can create value for customers, and I don't think we can see it in this today. ”

Zhongqing Robot Zhao Tongyang refuted Zhu Xiaohu. This robot company is the second company to list humanoid robot products on the e-commerce platform this year, after Unitree. Zhao Tongyang said: "Humanoid robots have become almost ubiquitous in five years, and it is the most exciting industrial revolution since humans learned to make tools...... Many of us entrepreneurs and all members of our team, we are not businessmen, in our eyes it is just a big thing that can change the world, and making money is just a natural added value. ”

This is a passage that seems quite idealistic, and more ordinary entrepreneurs who are entering the game are trying to catch it both ways. Zhang Zhenyao is one of them, he is debugging the input cost and R&D focus according to the market situation, and he is not shy about using the heat to make quick money, and he is also looking forward to the real commercialization of humanoid robots.

In this gamble on the future, investors hold the ruler of financial statements, entrepreneurs hold high the banner of technological revolution, and the ups and downs of the rental market are like a prism, reflecting the tension between idealism and business rationality. While the robots in the laboratory are still struggling to walk steadily, the industry may need to think more about how to keep up with the pace of commercialization and the speed of capital.

(Xu Chong is a pseudonym)

Resources

Phoenix Technology: Why do you have to let robots run marathons? 》

China Investment: "Jinshajiang Zhu Xiaohu: We are withdrawing from humanoid robot companies in batches"

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