Revealing the Secrets of "Western Shrimp, Eastern Farming": Three Key Logics Behind OpenClaw’s Localization Boom

An open-source AI agent software called OpenClaw has sparked a nationwide “raising lobsters” craze in China. Nearly a thousand people lined up outside Tencent's Shenzhen headquarters to install it—from programmers to retired engineers, housewives, and even Chinese seniors are actively participating.

The speed and enthusiasm with which Chinese people embrace AI has stunned foreigners.

“Quite amazing!” Philip Sun, Asia Sales at Goldman Sachs, wrote in a memo, “The young Chinese investors I know already have several ‘lobsters’ each... One is responsible for summarizing market news every morning, one analyzes whether investment decisions are too emotional, and there's even a ‘supervisor lobster’ specifically in charge of watching the other lobsters work.”

(Tencent employees set up booths outside the Shenzhen headquarters to help passersby install OpenClaw for free on their computers)

This “AI lobster” craze in China has not only shocked Wall Street, but also triggered a profound reassessment of the “western lobsters raised in the east” industry logic. On March 11, Guolian Minsheng Securities released a report titled “‘Western lobsters raised in the east’—OpenClaw’s China-US development comparison,” analyzing the underlying business logic behind the craze.

“Western lobsters raised in the east”: China’s logic of industry implementation

Although OpenClaw emerged overseas, after February, the Chinese market quickly adopted it and pushed it toward large-scale application, displaying the unique characteristic of “western lobsters raised in the east.”

The report believes that the apparent “western lobsters raised in the east” is the “FOMO-style anxiety” of domestic major companies regarding OpenClaw, but in reality it reflects the ecological mismatch between domestic and overseas markets in the wave of AI agent application implementation. Compared to overseas, China possesses cost advantages, traffic advantages, and policy advantages in this “lobster craze.”

From a cost perspective, China’s large model ecosystem has created a unique “low-price API” moat. The report points out: “The API call prices of domestic models are about 1/6 of similar overseas products.” This advantage comes from cheaper power for domestic computing, more flexible hardware configurations, and fierce competition among model vendors.

Additionally, spurred by OpenClaw, the token consumption by domestic models is accelerating. OpenRouter data shows that recent large model consumption has hit new highs with steep growth, and China ranks among the top in token consumption. This rapid token collision also proves the cost advantage.

From a traffic perspective, active participation by major companies is key to the “lobster craze” outbreak. With Zhipu launching “AutoClaw” (Aolong) on March 10, domestic “lobster products” now offer local, cloud, and hybrid deployment methods.

For major internet companies, deploying OpenClaw is not just about revenue growth for the agent business itself, but also competing for potential “new distribution rights” in the agent era. Looking ahead, as agent deployments continue to be implemented, human interaction with the digital world may be restructured—as the operating entity transitions from human to agent, new traffic entry points may shift as well.

For big companies, although this round of OpenClaw may still face technical immaturity, its shift for AI from “Chat” to “Work” may trigger market concerns about changes in new platform entry points, resulting in widespread “FOMO” and active deployment by big companies. Moreover, companies like Tencent may further spark traffic attention through social viral effects, spreading public awareness of the “lobster craze.”

From a policy perspective, Shenzhen, Wuxi, and other cities have taken the lead in issuing special policies. The report mentions that Wuxi High-Tech Zone released 12 “lobster-raising” policies, with individual support up to five million yuan, covering talent introduction, industry implementation, security compliance, and more.

1) On March 8, as reported by Shenzhen Release, recently, the Artificial Intelligence (Robotics) Office of Longgang District, Shenzhen publicly solicited opinions on “Measures to Support the Development of OpenClaw & OPC (Draft for Comments).” Among them, it proposes encouraging market-oriented and professional platform carriers to establish “lobster service zones,” provide free OpenClaw deployment services, and subsidies for eligible parties.

2) On March 9, Wuxi High-Tech Zone released “Several Measures to Support the Integration and Development of OpenClaw and Other Open-Source Community Projects with the OPC Community (Draft for Comments).” The 12 “lobster-raising” policies cover basic support to industry implementation, talent introduction to security compliance, offering a package of real financial benefits, with single support up to five million yuan. For local cloud platforms providing free deployment and development toolkits, up to one million yuan in total subsidies is available.

“Localization” of deployment modes and model selection

The latest development in this craze is the direct involvement of leading large model companies.

Guolian Minsheng Securities noted in its report: “On March 10, Zhipu officially launched AutoClaw (Chinese name: Aolong)—a one-click install local version of OpenClaw, with full native OpenClaw capabilities.”

According to the company’s introduction cited, “AutoClaw Aolong has over 50 mainstream Skills preset, ready to use, covering content creation, office, code, marketing, financial investment research and other high-frequency scenarios, and supports one-click integration with Feishu and other instant messaging tools.”

Not only Zhipu—major domestic companies are fully participating in localization. Since February, Zhipu, MiniMax and other large model enterprises and major cloud vendors have successively released related Claw products.

Guolian Minsheng Securities observed that domestic products have begun to show distinctly different features in deployment modes and model sources.

At the deployment level, Guolian Minsheng Securities pointed out: “From the deployment perspective, participation in this ‘lobster craze’ is showing a ‘blossoming’ trend.” Unlike overseas OpenClaw, which focuses on local deployment, “domestic ‘lobster products’ are deployed via local, cloud, and hybrid methods, offering more options.” The company believes this is mainly because “domestic ‘lobster products’ emphasize convenient and secure deployment.”

At the model access level, the report stresses: “From the sourcing perspective, most parties currently adopt multi-model matching, though some firms only use their own models as the main source.” Compared to the broader support of overseas versions, “domestic ‘lobster products’ mainly support calls to mainstream domestic large models, with some only supporting their own models as main sources.”

In summary, the report concludes that, driven by the OpenClaw-induced “lobster craze,” Chinese AI maintains its momentum of application, accelerated demand, and industry chain prosperity.

Risk disclaimer and exclusion clauseThe market carries risks; investments require caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not taken into account any individual user’s unique investment goals, financial situation, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions in this article are appropriate for their circumstances. Investing based on this article is at your own risk.