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Wency Chen

Vincent Chow

China’s leading humanoid robotics companies dominated the opening of this year’s Spring Festival Gala, the annual variety spectacle staged by state broadcaster CCTV that offers a rare nationwide marketing platform akin to the US Super Bowl, highlighting the central role of the industry in Beijing’s industrial policy.
Four robotics firms – Hangzhou-based Unitree, Wuxi-based Magiclab, Beijing-based Galbot and Noetix – had announced partnerships with this year’s gala in deals said to be valued at around 100 million yuan (US$14 million), after a Yangge folk dance performance by Unitree robots at last year’s event went viral and brought the industry to a mainstream audience.
The first robots to appear on Monday evening’s show were Noetix’s Bumi robots in a comedy sketch featuring a grandmother and grandson.
Unitree’s robots then performed martial arts with child artists, which included backflips and leaps from trampolines, before Magiclab’s humanoids appeared in a musical performance.


The performances showcased the progress made by humanoid technology in China thus far, with entertainment still the main outlet before they realise their longer-term potential of becoming efficient industrial workers.
Meng Siyuan, a viewer from Zhejiang province, said the choreography was “impressive”, but she was more interested in seeing human performers such as superstar Faye Wong.
“I am curious to see how robotic elements might increase year by year at the Spring Gala,” she said.
This year, ByteDance’s cloud computing arm, Volcano Engine, secured an “exclusive AI cloud partnership” with the gala, taking the baton from last year’s sponsor Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing and artificial intelligence unit of Alibaba Group Holding. This comes as demand for computing power surges, and China’s major cloud-service providers are locked in an increasingly fierce rivalry.
ByteDance, the parent of Douyin and TikTok, is using the occasion to showcase its full-stack AI capabilities. In the run-up to the holiday, the company unveiled Seedance 2.0, a video-generation model that drew widespread attention globally, and on Saturday it released updated Doubao-Seed 2.0 series models.
In a promotion for its consumer-facing Doubao app, the company plans to distribute more than 100,000 tech products, including drones, electric vehicles, robots and 3D printers, along with digital red envelopes worth up to 8,888 yuan (US$1,286) through lucky draws on Monday.
The gesture faces off against Tencent’s Yuanbao and Alibaba’s Qwen AI apps, which before the holiday rolled out giveaways worth 1 billion yuan and 3 billion yuan, respectively, in cash and vouchers, as the ancient tradition of lucky money found a new battleground in the AI era.
Excluded by the CCTV-ByteDance partnership, Alibaba sought other avenues for Qwen, sponsoring galas organised by local broadcasters in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Henan. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

CCTV’s gala, though still the most-watched television programme in the country – nearly 80 per cent of active televisions were tuned to it on the eve of the Year of the Snake last year – has struggled to maintain relevance among younger viewers, who are less accustomed to sitting through live programming.
CCTV teamed up this year with RedNote, Bilibili, Kuaishou and Douyin to expand digital distribution and drive engagement, even though the show often becomes the subject of online roasting.
Other companies have also sought visibility. Dreame Technology, a Suzhou-based maker of smart home appliances, secured a commercial slot on the gala as part of an aggressive, high-profile marketing push that also included advertising during the Super Bowl in the United States.
Budget retailer Miniso and trading-card maker Kayou are among the sponsors as well, both rolling out Year of the Horse-themed merchandise tied to the festivities.


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ByteDance, Unitree, RedNote, Bilibili and Kuaishou among the firms involved in the unparalleled nationwide marketing opportunity


ByteDance, Unitree, RedNote, Bilibili and Kuaishou among the firms involved in the unparalleled nationwide marketing opportunity.


Humanoids go mainstream as China’s robotics champions appear at CCTV spectacle

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}ByteDance, Unitree, RedNote, Bilibili and Kuaishou among the firms involved in the unparalleled nationwide marketing opportunity

ByteDance, Unitree, RedNote, Bilibili and Kuaishou among the firms involved in the unparalleled nationwide marketing opportunity