A boy learns to use a remote control to operate a robot dog developed by Unitree Robotics at a shopping mall in Shanghai on May 5. CHEN YUYU/FOR CHINA DAILY
As humanoid robots increasingly move into real-world settings such as tourism, transportation, retail and security, robot rental services are emerging as a fast-growing business model that many in the industry see as one of the earliest scalable paths toward commercialization.
"Rental services are currently the most suitable entry point," said Li Yiyan, CEO of Botshare, a domestic robot rental platform backed by robotics manufacturer AgiBot. Li said that while humanoid robots still face limitations in generalized capabilities and large-scale commercial adoption remains in its early stages, the long-term opportunities could extend far beyond the hardware itself.
"In the future, when robots enter homes, factories and security services on a larger scale, an enormous aftermarket ecosystem will emerge," Li said. "Secondhand robot trading, maintenance, repair and door-to-door services could all eventually be completed through robot rental platforms."
The rapid rise of the sector is already reflected in business registration data. According to Chinese corporate database platform Qichacha, China registered 38,200 robot rental-related enterprises in 2025 alone, up 55.7 percent year-on-year and marking the highest annual total in the past 10 years. As of April 2, another 9,114 related companies had already been registered nationwide this year.
