On the evening of Chinese New Year’s Eve, the 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala showcased the grand appearance of four robot companies, which online users mockingly referred to as a “large-scale business fair”. However, behind the glitz, clouds of doubt loomed large – allegations of remote control manipulation and lip-syncing controversies emerged one after another; Chinese robot companies spent a fortune to participate in the Spring Gala, with insiders bluntly stating that it was just a “game of spending capital to become the first, then attracting new capital”.
The ByteDance AI assistant “Dou Bao”, touted as the “exclusive AI cloud partner”, dominated the screen throughout the gala, with the hosts repeatedly mentioning “if you have any questions, ask Dou Bao”. Alibaba’s “Tongyi Qian Wen” secured exclusive naming rights for the Spring Gala broadcasts in Henan, Dongfang, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu, and distributed 3 billion yuan in subsidies before and after the new year. “Tencent Yuanbao” allocated 1 billion yuan in red envelopes, while China’s companies such as Kuaishou “Ke Ling” and Meituan also poured in advertising.
“Chinese Entrepreneur” magazine bluntly stated that this year’s Spring Festival Gala had turned into a “pervasive marketing war”.
The most eye-catching aspect was the collective stage appearance of the four robot companies: “Songyan Power” robots performed sketches with actor Cai Ming; “Yushu Technology” robots executed consecutive somersaults and martial arts performances; “Galaxy Universal” robots starred in the Shen Teng and Ma Li’s Lunar New Year microfilm; and “Magic Atom” robots danced with celebrities on stage.
According to reports from mainland media, each of the four robot companies that took the stage allegedly paid sponsorship fees as high as 100 million yuan. However, the actual cost for Yushu Technology may be significantly lower than its competitors.
Of note is the capital aspect of these companies. Both Songyan Power and Galaxy Universal have received investments from the CCTV convergence media fund, and both appeared at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, leading to speculation in the industry about “equity exchanges and shifting positions”.
Facing the phenomenon of robot companies spending heavily to participate in the Spring Gala, industry insiders did not shy away from addressing the underlying realities.
Li Boyang, CEO of Dalian Tais Technology Development Co., Ltd. (referred to as “EX Robotics”), candidly expressed in an interview with the “Daily Economic News”, “Why do companies want to be on the Spring Gala stage? It’s to show that they are the first among similar companies. Capital is willing to invest in the first, not the second. They spend capital to make themselves the first, and then attract new capital – this is the logic of capital, not market logic.”
This logic is evident. In the 2025 CCTV Spring Gala, Yushu Technology gained tremendous fame with a performance of over 3 minutes and saw its annual shipment volume of humanoid robots exceed 5,500 units, leading to the company’s valuation skyrocketing to 12 billion yuan. This “Spring Festival marketing” ignited a trend among many robot companies to follow suit.
However, replicating this marketing strategy is not easy. Top executives of the mentioned robot companies admitted that in a scenario where many companies are vying for attention without highly unique performances, it is now difficult to replicate the success of the past “Spring Festival battles”.
Zheng Suibing, founder of Reelman Intelligent Technology, pointed out that for individual companies, the real challenge after Spring Festival exposure is “the ability to follow up and close the commercial loop”.
Behind the lively marketing campaigns, there lies a clouded scenario regarding the practical application of the entire industry. Li Boyang frankly stated that humanoid robots entering factories “have not yet achieved the effect of reducing costs and increasing efficiency”; and in the field of home services, “the consensus within the industry is that it will take a longer time.” Even more cruelly, in his view, there is a considerable number of robot companies currently that “do not even have the ability to make a profit”.
While the Spring Gala was bustling with activity, a different scene unfolded in the public discourse.
The controversy of lip-syncing took center stage. Multiple netizens filmed videos and shared them on social media, pointing out discrepancies between mouth movements and sound during the gala programs, bluntly stating that “the entire show was full of lip-syncing”.
Furthermore, some netizens revealed that during the live broadcast, comments related to “not looking good” were censored, while those commenting “good-looking” were allowed to be posted, triggering criticism from viewers regarding opinion control.
The authenticity of the robot performances also faced strong scrutiny. Videos circulating online showed behind-the-scenes footage of Yushu robots being tested before the Spring Festival Gala, with a staff member using a remote control to manipulate the robots; another video claimed that each robot on stage had a real person behind it controlling remotely.
Some comments likened this to a “Chinese shadow play” and cited previous media reports investigating the robot industry’s claims of “autonomous operation, actually remote control”, questioning the technological content of the robot performances at the Spring Gala.
The robot companies, however, did not publicly respond directly to the aforementioned “remote control” accusations.
Simultaneously, the upgraded version of the Yushu G1 EDUU2 robot, the same as seen at the Spring Gala, was already available on platforms such as JD.com and Douyin, priced at 208,850 yuan, and does not support a seven-day return policy.
According to reports from mainland media, on New Year’s Eve, some consumers won the right to use the same robot as the Dou Bao assistant through lucky draws; JD.com platform data showed that within two hours of the Spring Festival Gala broadcast, the search volume for robots increased by over 300% and order volume grew by 150%.
However, the actual capabilities of these high-priced robots faced a more direct “slap in the face” in overseas markets. While the Spring Festival Gala was widely watched, an American consumer purchased the Yushu Unitree G1 humanoid robot to assist with home cooking, only to have it go out of control and fall during the cooking process, creating a mess – a video showcasing this incident went viral overseas.
Some netizens remarked that Chinese humanoid robots still have a long way to go before truly entering homes and independently “getting things done”.
Notably, according to the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” report, Yushu Technology founder Wang Xingxing admitted that “due to technological bottlenecks such as physical intelligent brains, humanoid robots are still in the early stages of application.”
Another video surfaced online, showing the Yushu robot “crashing”, indicating that its actual functionality is not better than the traditional performance-oriented martial arts. Some criticized that for the sake of prestige and the audience’s enjoyment, China went through great lengths!