What Americans Do in Shenzhen, and Where Humanoid Value Is Accruing

majority of them will agree that they have to work with China it's not a question anymore the next question is about how to cooperate with China what about the Americans like what do they come to FAIRPlus for?

most of them just come and have a look components company take 70% 20 to 25 is whole robot 500 companies 60,000 visitors FAIRPlus is the largest physical AI exhibition in Shenzhen it covers the full stack hardware software and the supply chain behind it this year the most number of international attendees come from the United States Europeans and Southeast Asians came to buy hardware Americans came to talk Jasmine Bai runs the international side of FAIRPlus she sees who flies in and why we'll find out what the world looks like from her seat Hi Jasmine, thank you so much for taking the time today yeah, thank you you run the international side of FAIRPlus the people who fly in the people who speak so can you walk me through how this job actually what you actually do and who are you trying to get into the building yeah, a lot of people will ask me because if I in charge of exhibition it's only take three days per year what I'm doing the rest of the 300 days actually a lot of work beforehand to put everyone come at the same time and communicate for a specific topic for example for FAIRPlus we want to invite all the robotic related professors investors

robot developers to come to Shenzhen during three days and they can meet what the people they want to meet and talk with people they want to talk so actually my main job is go to study each market and try to find the key person invite them to come to Shenzhen and also let them to bring more people more companies or more friends to come together this year is the second year that you run FAIRPlus how many exhibitors, how many visitors and how many came outside of China so last year was our first edition of FAIRPlus we have 210 companies because we only have six months preparation so last year was majority from China side so from last April to this April we have whole year to do the international promotion so our exhibitor number grew to more than 400 and for our visitor is 60,000 visitors come to FAIRPlus and among is 3,000 are from international visitors and they are from 100 countries and a very interesting is number one is from America not number one is like top 10 American, Germany Singapore Korean, also Holland all countries are very focused on robotic currently

so when you saw the final visitor breakdown what was the most surprising thing for you yeah, actually it's what I told you Americans visitors is really a lot because so far actually because FAIRPlus is co-organized by Shenzhen Robotics Association in the Messe Stuttgart, and Messe Stuttgart is a German company so we have a very good resource in European side and Shenzhen Robotic Association has a very good relationship in China about robot industry and also Messa Stuggart have very good office in Southeast Asia so actually you can know actually America is somehow we are not very good at so but in robots and AI industry actually America is very leading in this industry so actually from very beginning both of us said okay we apart from using our own very good resource we need to focus on American American side to do promotion and try to figure out how to influence the industry also we found it's a little bit hard because it's a very far from China to fly here and also the community is a little bit different and America had their own community to develop their own robot AI actually we work very hard but we don't know the result so the result really surprised me that America is the No. 1 country from our international visitors part

so that also gives us a lot of confidence that in the future we can do more in this side and find out what's their interest and how can I help them to do more you see where all these visitors come from each of them and when a European and Southeast Asian visitor come what are they here for and what about the Americans like what do they come to FAIRPlus for?

actually we know more about European Southeast Asia and European companies majority of them knows they need work with China for the supply chain actually when we do international promotion for FAIRPlus we highlight more about hardware cooperation because it's non sensitive part and everyone should use it no matter you are do robot or AI you need some hardware and it's no doubt that China is the best on manufacturing and production chain and also for robotics side actually Shenzhen is very good at that so everyone agree with the concept that they need to come to Shenzhen to find their partner for a hardware side and majority of Europeans very clear know they need supply chain partner here in Shenzhen that's the key reason they come for Southeast Asia they want to buy more clear they want to some robot and bring back to like Malaysia, Thailand they are very interested to have some robot back to their country and resell it so it's very clear the both part where the needs is so actually we do a lot of very matchmaking or targeted event to bring both side we select the Chinese company who can help the European or who can work with European side somehow work with Southeast Asian countries so we organize some small events to help them to matchmaking then they can go deeper to cooperate

but to be honest for American side so far we haven't find some like very specific things even we have a lot of visitors I think most of them just come and have a look but it's a good start after they come and have a look they understand the industry I think they will come up with more ideas what they need to do yeah, so it's more of a educational tour for some of these visitors and they're still exploring the use case and how to work with the Shenzhen partners you also mentioned that this year there are different pavilions and programs for different countries and there wasn't an American program tell me more about that like what's the story behind was the American conversation just happening in a different level I think markets are different like what I said Europeans, southeast Asian and Thailand they are more clear about their position in this industry how they can work with China of course some the majority of the idea from associations or our government partners or industry leaders from European or Southeast Asia they think in this way and they lead the topic of course not every company may follows but majority agree with this concept so they follow the rule to come and they benefit from it of course some of them also have different idea

I think American say they, I don't have their own idea so far I also talk with the visitors and why they come and so first time and for the ones who first come to China they are super impressed by the how it's working here because actually America also very good at robots so they have their own supply chain their own system to run it sometimes they don't have to go abroad but when they come to abroad some idea come to their mind and maybe some from investment side also some hardware corporation or co-develop I'm also looking forward to more detail because our show is just happened one month ago so now we are still do internal review and communicate with some of the people who come to our show side and ask about their feedback and also what they want to do for this I remember you mentioned that FAIRPlus when you promote it internationally you usually focus on the hardware side but actually there's a whole other side of the brain and the intelligence so tell me more about the full vision of FAIRPlus FAIRPlus actually is a platform designed for a robot developer so we welcome everyone who want to have their own robot or who already have their own robot because if they come they can see all the components all the OEM, ODM service company

and also software, hardware suppliers so they can talk with different part to realize his target to have the his own robot and what this robot use for because for different scenario the robots need to be designed in different way so actually this the whole concept for FAIRPlus is for robot developer so actually it's a technical exchange platform not for sale or for market branding why is because so far like humanoid robot is not commercial yet even we see a lot of like Unitree, UBTech very famous they also need to upgrade their product it's not ready that's it can be sold to everyone or can apply also the other side is whether the robot is still finding more a scenario to be applied we think they can work in every area in the factory or in the home but we still need to define how to use it and also lower the cost so more people can use it so FAIRPlus also help robots to lower their cost because there are so many suppliers you can find out the best solution for your own robots then I really remember the association leader once say when the product the price of robots below enough there are more people will use it

then there the industry will grow will grow a lot yeah so actually so far we are focusing on technology exchange that's why actually FAIRPlus only have shell skin every all the exhibitors are limited to 9 square meter or 18 so everyone is same and no matter you are Unitree or UBTech or Siemens or Bosch they all have very small booth so at beginning they don't understand us but later we persuade them to do in this way actually we mean to do it because normally a visitor come to a show they will first go to the biggest booth we cannot change it because everyone is have the habit to go to the biggest booth but in our show we don't have that every booth is the same so if you want to find your partner you need to go to all the booths so it's somehow more fair to everyone in this market because actually it's no top one or top two in this industry for the hands or robots they are only who already doing it but not the No. 1 this industry have a lot of future so we don't want to limit it the visitors idea about which brand is good and also for the companies who come to our show they don't need to prepare a lot of construction, decoration no, you just come to talk about technique

yeah so less marketing more like the technical innovations that's happening and exchange learn from each other it's very different so everyone come here with a different idea they don't need to oh I should be looks better than my competitor no need you just come to talk with others about your technique I'm curious when you see people that come for the brain side of the equation to FAIRPlus who are these people?

are they universities or who are the buyers like universities or are they startups or are they big corporates that are looking to innovate in house yeah recently I just learn a new word that is a Researcher-founder and founder researcher it's actually a very famous word in this industry especially in the data and brain side AI or brain side because actually it's very the academy side world and industry very connected because you need for the data side you need a lot of research to find out how to control the robot and control each component and how did it come from lab to the real world so actually you can find a lot of startup founders they are from very high level universities or research or maybe they are professor their own so actually this part people are for who are the new founders for this topic so actually you see a lot of these researchers from universities to come for the brain side or the hardware side?

brain side but actually all the brain company also need hardware yeah, so they also need to find partner from hardware side so they need to work together it's not only one people can do it they need partnership so actually FAIRPlus is best for them to find partners or find a solution for themselves yeah that's also why we during FAIRPlus we have a lot of event one event is we do together with Science Robotics the Academy Journal from America you know the Science Magazine Science Robotic we do a session together with them want to link the academy side with the industry CTOs because from the research paper to a real company there is a lot of step need to go some researchers would like to go to industry or go to business and some still doing their research but they also need to know what the industry need then they do the research in that way so I remember when we chatted on the phone earlier you mentioned that you know a lot of times people think about Shenzhen is that oh we take a plane to Shenzhen find a partner and then get a supplier and you mentioned that there's a company from Germany that actually set up their headquarters in Shenzhen so

tell me more about what you see in terms of the trend like are more people doing that now or is the former way still more popular?

yeah actually is a German company who do the robot hand and it's called SCHUNK they also from Stuttgart their headquarter is from Stuggart we are very close with the company people and it was last year when we start our FAIRPlus they said oh we want we also doing this till now they're main business is about supply the industry robots about the peak components actually this is their new business and last year their Global CTO will come to China to talk about us and also association to say that they want to build up a R&D center in Shenzhen about this department also they are sending their German colleague from technical like CTO or tech engineer to come to Shenzhen to lead this product because they think Shenzhen is a good place they can find their supplier also good people for the research side because Germany is a little bit behind the research or business in this now because Germany is very good at industrial robots but for humanoid robots they are a little bit late that's why they come to China and they select to build up their R&D center here

I think more companies are considering it because you need to be close to the industry and also close to the supply chain so that you can know how to build that product I'm curious what do you see, you know given for example Germany that has decades or even a century worth of industrial robotics or industrial manufacturing expertise what is not transferable over to the robotic side, a humanoid side?

ideally in the future there's everything can be transferred because for robots no matter human or robot the industrial robot is help us do our human's things but one thing I can realize is from especially Germany side all the studies or the business is more focusing on humanoid robots application in the factories maybe upgrade the industry robot or use this robot to help the workers in factory they more focus on this side even I I read some research paper or they say okay the humanoid robot no need to have two legs because in the factory they don't need to walk they can just move it's very interesting I also talk with another speaker from American and I share the information oh I heard from Germany side they think the robot and then the American speaker tell me that oh if they don't have they are not humanoid robot someone insists they should look at human right because the world is designed for a human being so look like a human is more comfortable to for there to walk maybe from cost effective side they have more ideas so apparently there's no one answer about what the future should be so that's how important

the communication platform should have I recently saw this video with a humanoid robots on skater wheels so they still have two legs but they're on wheels so it's like both two legs but also wheels so out of the FAIRPlus exhibition this year which part of the floor like which part of the exhibition has grown the most versus the first year? you mean the FAIRPlus?

yeah in terms of exhibitors yeah actually our percentage of companies are keep the same both edition this year and the last year our components company take 70% so like the actuators and 20 to 25 is the whole robot, whole machine actually the percentage is same almost same and we just grow the members of them actually this year still the international involvement is about speech and visit site so next year we are inviting more company to exhibit or take a booth here to show their things maybe from America or from Europe to have booth there to discuss with more people yeah and in terms of you mentioned that there's a lot of speakers this year lots of different sessions what are the most popular sessions that you saw like the room is full and crowded with people?

we have survey on that actually the international exchange is the most welcome one like we have a European session, we have a very leading like a human robot company like superstar from Europe YSKL from Spain and one is Neura from Germany so both one CEO, one CTO to come here to introduce their product it's very interesting for the Chinese company because what the first of what their robot are looking for where they can use why they have their how we can cooperate with them in the production chain because these two are still built up in Germany so their selling price is really high they also come to find out their solution because they know they need to lower the price and to benefit more industry to use yeah so the session from the Spain and is it German?

German German robots are they were the CTO and the CEO sharing about their supply chain like what were they talking about that attracted the attention? talk more about how their robots what they think the robots will be used and also how now also some painpoint of their company when they can cooperate with China because of course they come to China to find some partners they are not only fly here with 10 hours flight and come here just have a look it's not so they're looking for like cheaper components?

they will not say it but of course they are looking for that and so it's European session we also have from Switzerland, Holland to somehow they have different very detail request but in general they want to cooperate with China and also we have another popular is Asia session is somehow same topic that is company from Japan, Korea and also another big catalogue very famous is about we have a conference called Power Robot is link the Capital Investment Institute with the robot company because now everyone need money also the robot company they are all a majority of them startups so they also want to talk with the investment and capital people to see so it's like a investor and startup matchmaking yes platform so for someone overseas that came to FAIRPlus for a day what do you think that person will understand more after visiting FAIRPlus like about the China supply chain and how to work with suppliers in shenzhen I think majority of them will agree that they have to work with China it's not a question anymore

some of them before they come they may be considered okay it's a just a market but after they come okay it is definitely a yes to come to China the next question is about how to cooperate with China so different company have different ideas but they definitely will back to China again and also I got a lot like this space we do is as an extension of FAIRPlus I also got a lot of request how to come here to deeper to the industry so we are also working on it can you share two or three exhibitors that you would say hey if you come from overseas you should pay attention to these ones and why do you think those are up and coming?

is really a difficult question because actually why we put every booth the same side because we want they have a look at everyone but actually I want to share two companies who maybe if you want for German company I always take the example is SCHUNK they have their R&D center here not this one is the one I share and also like a big company Siemens they already work with us two years and their concept is to because there are so many humanoid robot and they need somehow a leader for the human and robot in the future in the factory so actually Siemens must position themselves in this position so they work with us and they talk with all the companies about their research and renting for Siemens they need to adjust themselves to know all the robot product how they can be used in the factory then they can be the leader or CEO of human and robot in the future is the leader also a humanoid or is it like I mean human humanoid because human need to control the humanoid robot and the humanoid need a leader to control the humanoid robot so Siemens want to be the part and they work with all the company so I want to share this is

they are very open to every company to talk and I think they don't have business so far in this sector but they talk with everyone to understand different ideas so it's very open to the industry then they can gain cooperation it's not about which country you are come from it's just cooperation yeah that's awesome well thank you so much Jasmine, this is wonderful and very insightful so thank you so much for taking your time