Executive Summary

Based on publicly disclosed tender awards from public hospitals in China, MedRobot & MedChina's analysis shows that a total of 90 laparoscopic surgical robots were awarded in 2025 involving nine manufacturers.

Despite the increasing presence of domestic players, the da Vinci Surgical System continues to dominate the market. Among Chinese manufacturers Edge Medical emerged as the leading domestic player by awarded volume and showed particularly strong performance in terms of hospital tier and geographic distribution.

This report reviews China’s 2025 laparoscopic surgical robot tenders from four perspectives:

1. Vendor landscape

2. Volume and value structure

3. Hospital purchasing behavior

4. Temporal evolution

For more comprehensive annual sales statistics including private hospitals and overseas markets please refer to MedRobot’s forthcoming annual report.

Overall Landscape: Da Vinci Remains Dominant, Domestic Players Differentiate, Edge Medical Takes an Early Lead

In 2025, against the backdrop of continued pressure on China’s broader medical device market, the laparoscopic surgical robot segment maintained relatively resilient growth.

Looking back three years, China’s laparoscopic robotic surgery market was almost entirely dominated by da Vinci. Its early advantages in hospital penetration, surgeon training, and clinical pathway integration created significant entry barriers. Domestic manufacturers were largely confined to pilot or validation-stage deployments, with limited access to top-tier tertiary hospitals.

By 2025 this structure had begun to shift.

Eight Chinese manufacturers achieved publicly disclosed tender wins. Domestic brands collectively secured 47 awarded systems accounting for approximately 52 percent of total awarded volume. Leading domestic players including Edge Medical and MicroPort MedBot began to secure tenders across multiple regions and core tertiary hospitals rather than isolated pilot sites.

Among domestic manufacturers, Edge Medical ranked first with 16 awarded systems representing roughly 34 percent of domestic awarded volume. From both scale and hospital profile perspectives, it became the first domestic player to demonstrate early signs of scalable commercialization.

Overall, China’s laparoscopic surgical robot market in 2025 exhibited the following characteristics:

• Da Vinci remains the market leader in both awarded units and contract value;

• Leading domestic manufacturers are accelerating their rise, with Edge Medical ranking first among Chinese brands by awarded volume;

• Edge Medical, MicroPort MedBot, and Sagebot constitute the core domestic competitive group;

• Several manufacturers achieved their first or limited tender wins in 2025, further widening market stratification.

Table 1. Awarded Volume vs. Total Contract Value by Major Vendors (2025)

Note: Some tender projects did not disclose contract value.

Divergence Among Domestic Players: Volume vs. Pricing

In 2025, differences among Chinese manufacturers became increasingly evident when examined through two dimensions: awarded volume and pricing, each reflecting different stages of capability development.

Table 2. Awarded Units, Contract Value, and Average Price per System (2025)

Notes: Monetary unit: RMB (10,000 CNY); averages rounded; Average price = total disclosed contract value ÷ number of awarded units with disclosed pricing.

1. Awarded Volume: From “Pilot Presence” to “Repeatable Deployment”

   From a volume perspective, some domestic manufacturers have moved beyond symbolic or pilot-stage deployments toward consistent annual tender wins with diversified project distribution.

   Edge Medical stands out: with 16 awarded systems in 2025, it ranked first among domestic players by volume. More critically, these projects were not concentrated in a single province or hospital system, but distributed across multiple regions and tertiary hospitals.

   In robotic surgery—a field that relies heavily on clinical coordination and long-term support—volume is not merely a sales metric. Instead, it serves as a composite test of whether a company can:

   • Replicate delivery and service across regions;

   • Deploy systems under diverse hospital management and departmental structures;

   • Transition from isolated pilot projects to scalable commercialization.

   We also analyzed public tender data from the past three years. The trend shows a clear shift from “limited demonstration” to “multi-site adoption.” Edge Medical, in particular, demonstrated the most continuous growth trajectory, consolidating its domestic leadership position in 2025. (This comparison is based solely on publicly disclosed tenders and is intended to illustrate structural trends rather than precise market share.)

   
   

Table 3. Public Tender Awards for Domestic Laparoscopic Robots (2023–2025)

2. Contract Value: Concentration Persists, Pricing Reflects Long-Term Capability

   Compared with volume, contract value remains significantly more concentrated.

   Among domestic manufacturers, Edge Medical, MicroPort MedBot, and Sagebot captured the majority of disclosed contract value in 2025, forming a clearly defined top tier. Other players remain at relatively modest revenue levels.

   This concentration is not unexpected. Laparoscopic surgical robots are not one-off equipment sales. They require:

   • Continuous surgeon training and procedural support;

   • Long-term system maintenance and upgrades;

   • Sustained academic and service investment tightly coupled with hospital specialty development.

   In this context, maintaining a stable and hospital-acceptable pricing structure reflects underlying system maturity and long-term commitment. Overreliance on aggressive price competition may undermine sustainability rather than accelerate adoption.

   Therefore, contract value not only reflects market size distribution but also highlights differences in manufacturers’ capacity for long-term investment and support.

Hospital Perspective: From Initial Adoption to Real-World Utilization

Vendor rankings alone provide an incomplete picture. In 2025, hospital purchasing behavior offers a more revealing lens into market maturity.

1. Tertiary Hospitals Remain the Core Buyers

   Tender awards in 2025 remained highly concentrated in Class III (tertiary) hospitals, with limited penetration into secondary or primary institutions.

   This suggests that current adoption is driven by capability-based decisions, rather than policy-driven volume expansion. For these hospitals, key considerations typically include:

   • Integration into existing surgical workflows;

   • Long-term reliability and utilization;

   • Availability of training and technical support.

   Securing repeated tenders at tertiary hospitals therefore implies that a system has passed stringent clinical and administrative evaluation.

2. Multiple Awards Within the Same Hospital: From “Trying” to “Scaling”

   Public data from 2025 reveal cases where the same hospital awarded robotic systems multiple times within a single year. Such cases usually correspond to:

   • Expansion across departments;

   • Additional procurement following initial deployment;

   • System upgrades or capacity expansion based on real-world use.

   In all scenarios decisions are no longer about whether to adopt robotics but about how to scale usage based on proven experience.

   
   

3. Hospital Selection Patterns of Leading Domestic Players

   By 2025, domestic manufacturers began to diverge in hospital entry strategies.

   Some projects remain single-site or regionally concentrated, closer to pilot-stage deployment. Others show cross-regional, multi-hospital continuity, typically involving mature tertiary hospitals emphasizing long-term system stability and service continuity.

   Edge Medical exemplifies the latter. In 2025, its awarded projects covered multiple national or regional benchmark tertiary hospitals, including:

   • The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine

   • The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University

   • Peking University People’s Hospital Qingdao

   • Beijing Shijitan Hospital (Capital Medical University)

   These hospitals share characteristics of stable laparoscopic case volumes, broad geographic distribution, and limited dependence on any single province.

   As one of the earliest listed laparoscopic robotics companies in China, MicroPort MedBot also maintained steady presence in several provincial and large comprehensive tertiary hospitals, suggesting that leading domestic players are collectively moving into higher-tier hospital segments.

Conclusion: From “Entering Hospitals” to “Being Repeatedly Chosen”

China’s 2025 laparoscopic surgical robot tender data point to a clear and important transition: winning a tender is no longer the end point. Instead, repeat wins and cross-regional adoption are becoming the new threshold.

Imported brands continue to lead for now. However, within the domestic segment, a subset of companies has begun to demonstrate scalable characteristics across volume, value, and hospital structure simultaneously.

If past competition centered on whether domestic alternatives existed, the post-2025 question becomes far more concrete:

Which systems are hospitals choosing again and why?

MedChina, January 4, 2026