On the 16th, four humanoid companies that appeared on China’s Lunar New Year special gala show reportedly paid around 21 billion won each as a sponsorship fee. A CEO from one of the companies that paid the hefty participation fee expressed their struggles, stating, “You have to sit at the game table to remain at the top of the industry.”
Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily reported on the 17th that four humanoid manufacturing startups—Unitree, Galbot, Noetics, and Magic Lab—each paid a sponsorship fee of 100 million yuan (approximately 21 billion won) for a 3-4 minute appearance on CCTV’s Lunar New Year special, Chunwan, which aired on the 16th.
Chunwan is a special program broadcast live by CCTV from 8 PM to midnight on Lunar New Year’s Eve to celebrate the festival. Since its start in 1983, Chunwan has become a tradition for the Chinese New Year, being recognized by the Guinness World Records as the most-watched TV program globally. Originally centered around various performances, Chunwan has become a stage for showcasing the latest technologies with the involvement of China’s major IT companies over the past decade.
CCTV, which reported a 79.29% live viewing rate for Chunwan this year, provided sponsorship titles to the companies in exchange for the significant sponsorship fees. Unitree was named the “Robot Partnership Partner,” Galbot received “Designated Physical Large-scale Language Model Robot,” Noetics got “Humanoid Partnership Partner,” and Magic Lab obtained the “Smart Robot Partnership Partner” title. Except for Unitree, which made its third appearance this year showcasing a Kung Fu martial arts robot called Wubot, the other three companies appeared on Chunwan for the first time.
The companies’ management views the high participation cost as a survival strategy. Noetics’ founder and CEO, Zhang Zheyuan, in an interview with financial media outlet Jiemian News on the 16th, pointed out that China’s physical AI industry has shifted from “showcasing technology” to “status competition.” Zhang compared Chunwan to a Mahjong table and stated, “Only those who can sit at the four-person table and play the game will remain in the industry’s leading group in the future.”
Additionally, some in the industry believe that the 21 billion won sponsorship for Chunwan is worth the investment. IT media outlet Tencent Technology analyzed that if Unitree didn’t participate in Chunwan, it might lose its competitive edge and reputation as the “No.1 Robot Brand in China.” The companies that appeared this year have estimated market values of 21 billion yuan (approximately 4.4 trillion won) for Galbot, 12 billion yuan (approximately 2.5 trillion won) for Unitree, 3.5 billion yuan (approximately 740 billion won) for Magic Lab, and 2 billion yuan (approximately 420 billion won) for Noetics.
Chunwan has already gained notoriety for its astronomical sponsorship fees. In 2016, Alibaba’s Alipay paid 800 million yuan (approximately 1.68 trillion won), and in 2019, internet portal Baidu paid 1 billion yuan (approximately 2.1 trillion won) to CCTV.
Meanwhile, Unitree, which appeared for the second consecutive year, also garnered attention for its technological advancements. Unitree boasted on its official social media on the 17th about showcasing five world-first technologies at Chunwan, including pass-through obstacle parkour, a 3-meter high assisted backflip, continuous single-legged aerial somersaults using a wall, a high-difficulty b-boying technique involving 7.5 rotations, and a clustering group dance technique with a speed of 4 meters per second.
Wang Xingxing, CEO of Unitree, proudly stated in a CCTV interview that to achieve these challenging moves, they underwent billions of simulations and fine-tuning on a real robot, highlighting world-first technologies in robot balance control, dynamic response, and stable landing.