On March 6 in Shenzhen, China, nearly 1,000 people lined up outside Tencent's headquarters to install OpenClaw, a popular open-source software for AI agents. This was reported by SCMP.
The crowd gathered at the invitation of Tencent's cloud computing division. Company employees offered free installations to individuals with varying levels of technical expertise, including hobbyist developers, retirees, homemakers, students, and AI enthusiasts.
Simultaneously, social media was flooded with hundreds of posts offering similar installation services for tens to hundreds of yuan (100 CNY is approximately $15).
Tencent's initiative reflects the growing interest in OpenClaw, which has expanded beyond the developer community to become popular among hobbyists and everyday users. The application allows users to create AI agents that operate locally on their devices.
At the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom conference in San Francisco, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called OpenClaw "the most important software ever released."
Shanghai designer Mark Yang was among the first to try the service and noted that it felt like having a virtual employee who handles tasks and reduces his workload.
Despite the excitement, installing and configuring OpenClaw proved challenging for users without deep technical knowledge. This barrier explains the popularity of paid services on local social platforms.
China Falls in Love with OpenClaw
SCMP highlighted that numerous online and offline events have emerged across mainland China, where knowledge is shared and the adoption of OpenClaw is encouraged.
Writer Afra Wang, who covers Chinese technology, attended one such event and witnessed the immense interest in the software. The turnout was so large that attendance had to be limited.
The rapid adoption of the project occurs despite the fact that it requires a high level of control over the user's computer system.
Recall that in February, OpenClaw deleted the email of a Meta researcher, despite being instructed not to.