An open-source AI agent software, OpenClaw, has ignited a nationwide "lobster farming" craze in China. Nearly a thousand people queued outside Tencent's Shenzhen headquarters for installations, with participants ranging from programmers to retired engineers, homemakers, and even elderly Chinese citizens enthusiastically joining in. The speed and fervor with which the Chinese public has embraced AI have astonished international observers. "Quite amazing!" wrote Philip Sun from Goldman Sachs Asia sales in a memo. "The young Chinese investors I've met already have several 'lobsters' each... One is responsible for summarizing market news every morning, another for analyzing whether investment decisions are too emotional, and there's even a 'supervisor lobster'专门 tasked with monitoring the others."
(Tencent employees set up stalls outside the company's headquarters in Shenzhen, offering free OpenClaw installations on personal computers for passersby.) This Chinese "AI lobster" fever has not only shocked Wall Street but also triggered a deep reassessment of the industrial logic behind the "Eastern cultivation of Western lobsters." On March 11, Guolian Minsheng Securities published a research report titled "Eastern Cultivation of Western Lobsters – A Comparison of OpenClaw's Development in China and the US," dissecting the underlying commercial drivers of this trend. "Eastern Cultivation of Western Lobsters": The Chinese Logic for Industrial Implementation Although OpenClaw originated overseas, since February, the Chinese market has rapidly adopted and scaled its application, showcasing the unique characteristics of "Eastern cultivation of Western lobsters." The report suggests that while the surface-level driver appears to be "FOMO-style anxiety" among major domestic tech firms regarding the OpenClaw trend, the phenomenon actually reflects an ecological misalignment between China and overseas markets in the wave of AI application deployment during the Agent era. Compared to international markets, China holds distinct advantages in cost, user traffic, and policy support within this "lobster craze." From a cost perspective, China's large language model ecosystem has developed a unique "low-cost API" barrier. The report notes, "The API calling prices for domestic models are approximately one-sixth of those for similar overseas products." This advantage stems from cheaper electricity supporting computational power, more flexible hardware configurations, and intense competition among domestic model providers.
Furthermore, driven by OpenClaw, token consumption for domestic models is accelerating. Data from OpenRouter shows recent consumption hitting new highs with a steep growth curve, and Chinese models ranking prominently in token usage. This rapid increase in token consumption further evidences the cost advantage.
From a traffic perspective, active participation by major tech companies has been crucial to the outbreak of the "lobster craze." With KNOWLEDGE ATLAS launching "AutoClaw" on March 10, domestic "lobster products" now extend to local, cloud, and hybrid deployment methods. For major internet firms, deploying OpenClaw may not solely concern revenue growth from the Agent business itself but also involves competing for potential "new distribution rights" in the impending Agent era. Looking ahead, as Agent deployment continues, the way humans interact with the digital world may undergo significant restructuring—when the primary operator shifts from humans to Agents, new traffic gateways could also migrate. For these large companies, although OpenClaw may still face technical immaturities, its role in shifting AI from "Chat" to "Work" could spark market concerns about changes in platform entry points, leading to widespread "FOMO" and proactive deployment. Additionally, companies like Tencent may leverage their social networking effects to amplify traffic and public attention, further spreading awareness of the "lobster craze."
From a policy perspective, cities like Shenzhen and Wuxi have taken the lead in introducing specialized policies. The report mentions that among the 12 "lobster farming" policies released by Wuxi High-Tech Zone, single-item support can reach up to 5 million yuan, covering talent acquisition, industrial implementation, safety, and compliance.
1) On March 8, according to a Shenzhen announcement, the Longgang District Artificial Intelligence (Robotics) Office solicited public opinions on the "Several Measures to Support OpenClaw & OPC Development (Draft for Comments)." It proposed encouraging market-oriented, professional platform carriers to establish "lobster service zones" offering free OpenClaw deployment services, with eligible entities receiving certain subsidies. 2) On March 9, Wuxi High-Tech Zone released the "Several Measures to Support the Integrated Development of Open Source Community Projects like OpenClaw and the OPC Community (Draft for Comments)." The 12 "lobster farming" policies provide comprehensive support from basic assistance to industrial implementation, talent recruitment to safety compliance, offering substantial financial incentives, with single-item support capped at 5 million yuan. For deployment, local cloud platforms providing free deployment and development toolkits can receive full subsidies of up to 1 million yuan.
"Localized" Adaptations in Deployment and Model Selection A recent development in this trend is the direct involvement of leading large model providers. Guolian Minsheng Securities stated in the report, "On March 10, KNOWLEDGE ATLAS officially launched AutoClaw—a locally deployable version of OpenClaw with one-click installation, possessing the full native capabilities of OpenClaw." Citing KNOWLEDGE ATLAS's introduction, the report added, "AutoClaw comes pre-loaded with over 50 mainstream Skills, ready to use out-of-the-box, covering high-frequency scenarios like content creation, office work, coding, marketing, and financial investment research, and supports one-click integration with instant messaging tools such as Feishu." It's not just KNOWLEDGE ATLAS; major domestic firms are fully engaging in localization. Since February, large model companies like KNOWLEDGE ATLAS and MiniMax, along with major cloud providers, have successively released related Claw products. Guolian Minsheng Securities observed that domestic products already exhibit distinctly different characteristics in deployment methods and model sources. Regarding deployment, the report clearly stated, "In terms of deployment methods, participation in the 'lobster craze' by various entities shows a 'blooming of a hundred flowers' trend." Unlike the original intent of OpenClaw overseas, which emphasized local deployment, "domestic 'lobster products' from major firms feature local deployment, cloud deployment, and hybrid deployment, offering greater flexibility." The institution attributes this primarily to "the greater emphasis on deployment convenience and security in the current domestic 'lobster products'." On model access, the report emphasized, "Regarding model sources, most entities currently employ multi-model matching, though some companies choose to rely solely on their own models as the primary source." Compared to the broad support in overseas versions, "domestic 'lobster products' mainly support calls to mainstream domestic large models, with some currently limited to using their own proprietary models as the primary source." Overall, the report concludes that, driven by the "lobster craze" ignited by OpenClaw, China's AI sector continues its strong trend of accelerated application deployment, growing demand, and resonance across the industrial chain.
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