Storyline Robot rental on the rise in China At your next shopping mall, concert or sporting event in China, humanoid robots are likely to make an appearance as more and more companies are renting them for a range of scenarios. In one recent case, a tea company ordered 12 robots for a launch event at its newest store. Other popular use case scenarios for humanoid robot rentals include mall promotions, sports competitions and concerts, with bundled service prices ranging from hundreds to thousands of USD. The head of a robot rental company said they have some promotions planned for upcoming Spring Festival. Li Yiyan, Head, robot rental platform: "Around the Spring Festival, we will expand to 200 cities. Initially, we will deploy 2,000 robots to market outlets nationwide. We aim to achieve a two-hour response time and ensure arrival within 24 hours as our basic requirement." Industry watchers predict robot rental prices will continue to drop as technology and production advance. Analysts from Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets predict that the total addressable market for humanoid robots will reach about 9 trillion U.S. dollars by the year 2050, with China accounting for more than 60 percent of that. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]