According to a report by China Daily on February 20
From stage spectacle to scalable consumer demand
China’s annual Spring Festival Gala has long served as a cultural barometer. This year, it may also have marked a commercial turning point for the country’s humanoid robotics industry.
Within two hours of the broadcast by China Media Group, search volumes for robots on JD.com surged 300 percent. Customer service inquiries rose 460 percent, and order volumes jumped 150 percent, according to platform data. New orders were placed from more than 100 cities, spanning both top-tier metropolitan areas and smaller regional markets.
For investors and industry observers, the takeaway is clear: humanoid robotics in China is moving from demonstration to demand.
A Market Scaling Faster Than Expected
Research firm GGII estimates domestic humanoid robot shipments reached approximately 18,000 units in 2025 — a nearly 650 percent increase from 2024. Shipments are projected to climb to 62,500 units in 2026.
This trajectory suggests that China’s robotics industry is entering an early commercialization phase, supported by:
Rapid hardware iteration cycles
Cost compression through supply-chain integration
Strong consumer curiosity and acceptance
Expanding use cases in service and light industrial tasks
Unlike previous robotics waves focused primarily on factories, this new growth phase is consumer- and service-oriented.
Companies to Watch
Several domestic robotics firms used the gala platform to showcase increasingly practical applications.
MagicLab
Its MagicBot Gen1 and Z1 units demonstrated food preparation and delivery functions, positioning humanoids for hospitality and retail environments. The company emphasized commercial utility rather than entertainment value.
Galbot
Founded in 2023, Galbot raised $300 million in December 2025, reaching a $3 billion valuation. Its robots, powered by the “AstraBrain” large-model AI, demonstrated dexterity in sorting and folding tasks — a signal of progress in fine motor control, a longstanding challenge in humanoid development.
Noetix Robotics
The firm showcased humanoids capable of realistic facial expressions using compact motor systems. It plans to mass-produce its Bumi series, with entry pricing starting at 9,988 yuan (approximately $1,446), suggesting an aggressive move toward affordability.
Unitree Robotics
Already known globally for quadruped robots, Unitree demonstrated advanced humanoid mobility, including obstacle avoidance and acrobatic maneuvers. By the end of 2025, the company had shipped more than 5,500 humanoid units and surpassed 1 billion yuan in annual revenue, reporting five consecutive years of profitability.
From Spectacle to Adoption
The gala appearance was not the first time robots have featured in Chinese media events. However, this year marked the first large-scale showcase of multiple competing humanoid manufacturers simultaneously.
More importantly, the immediate conversion into measurable consumer demand distinguishes this moment from prior technology demonstrations.
China’s advantages in this sector include:
Deep motor and actuator supply chains
Competitive battery manufacturing
AI model localization for embodied intelligence
Rapid cost-down engineering
The result: humanoid robots are approaching price points that expand addressable markets beyond research labs and enterprise pilots.
What This Means for Global Robotics Competition
China’s humanoid robotics industry is still in an early stage compared to industrial automation leaders globally. However, the speed of commercialization — particularly in consumer and light-service domains — may reshape competitive dynamics.
Three signals stand out:
Mass-market pricing is emerging earlier than expected.
Domestic consumer acceptance is accelerating.
Private capital continues to flow aggressively into the sector.
If projected shipment growth materializes, China could become both the largest testing ground and the largest scaling market for humanoid robots within the next two years.
Bottom Line
The Spring Festival Gala performance may have captured public imagination, but the data that followed captured investor attention.
Humanoid robotics in China is no longer confined to laboratory prototypes or viral videos. It is entering its first measurable demand cycle — one defined not just by technical ambition, but by purchase orders.
For global executives and investors, the question is shifting from “Can humanoids work?” to “How fast can they scale?”