On March 6th in Shenzhen, China, nearly 1,000 people queued outside Tencent’s headquarters to install OpenClaw, a popular open-source software for AI agents, on their computers. This was reported by SCMP.
The crowd gathered at the invitation of Tencent’s cloud computing division. Company employees installed the software for free for people with varying technical skills: amateur developers, retirees, homemakers, students, and AI enthusiasts.
Simultaneously, hundreds of posts appeared on social media offering similar 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 and gained popularity among hobbyists and regular users. The application allows the creation of AI agents that operate locally on a device.
At the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called OpenClaw “the most important software ever released.”
A Shanghai-based designer, Mark Yan, was among the first to try the service and noted that he felt as if he had a virtual employee performing tasks and reducing his workload.
Despite the excitement, installing and configuring OpenClaw correctly has proven challenging for users without deep technical knowledge. This hurdle explains the popularity of paid services on local social platforms.
China’s Affection for OpenClaw
SCMP noted that numerous online and offline events have emerged across mainland China, sharing knowledge and encouraging the adoption of OpenClaw.
Afra Wang, a writer covering Chinese technology, attended one such event and witnessed the immense interest in the software. The gathering attracted so many people that attendance had to be limited.
The rapid adoption of the project comes despite the fact that it requires a high level of control over the user’s computer system.
Back in February, OpenClaw deleted a Meta researcher’s email, despite commands not to do so.
