The giants are all joining the fray—after Alibaba and ByteDance, Tencent has also launched its own "Little Lobster"!

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A "shrimp" is reshaping the way ordinary people collaborate with AI.

Last week, a remarkable scene appeared at the entrance of Tencent’s headquarters: nearly a thousand users lined up, just to have Tencent programmers help them install an AI tool called OpenClaw. This open-source Agent, nicknamed "lobster" by netizens, can automatically monitor trends, write weekly reports, fix bugs, and even control your computer to do the work for you. Its GitHub stars have surpassed 190,000. However, the long queues also revealed a real dilemma – the configuration is too complicated for ordinary people to install.

Just as the "shrimp fever" was at its peak, tech giants collectively made their move.

On March 9th, Tencent and ByteDance's Volcano Engine successively announced their own "lobster" products, while Alibaba Cloud Tongyi Lab launched a similar product called CoPaw. The three giants betting on the same track reflects a clear industry signal: The war of AI Agents has shifted from technical competition to "who can truly enable ordinary people to use them".

Tencent's "Three Shrimps" Launched in One Day

Tencent acted most aggressively, launching three products in one day, covering three main scenarios: personal local use, enterprise collaboration, and multi-platform office.

QClaw, launched by Tencent PC Manager, supports both Mac and Windows, focusing on zero-configuration integration with WeChat. The logic is extremely simple: send a command in WeChat, and the AI handles the task on your computer, returning the result directly to your WeChat window. All data stays locally and you never need to touch the command line. This means that AI has truly entered the most frequent usage scenario for ordinary people—chat windows, instead of a separate app that needs to be "specifically opened".

Enterprise WeChat OpenClaw intelligent bot targets enterprise collaboration, supporting direct conversations within Enterprise WeChat and quickly writing data into smart spreadsheets via OpenClaw, greatly improving team collaboration efficiency.

WorkBuddy is the complete version of Tencent’s "lobster". It is fully compatible with OpenClaw’s skills, completely eliminating the cloud deployment step, allowing users to install and immediately input commands to use it, connecting to Enterprise WeChat in as fast as 1 minute. More importantly, it seamlessly connects with QQ, Feishu, DingTalk and other mainstream tools, supports more than 20 Skill packs and the MCP protocol, even supports multi-window, multi-Agent parallel work, dynamically decomposing complex tasks for multiple AIs to work simultaneously.

In terms of security, WorkBuddy is based on Tencent CodeBuddy’s unified architecture, integrating unified account and billing systems and providing comprehensive security audit capabilities—which was exactly what open-source tools previously lacked. Currently, over 2,000 Tencent internal HR, admin, and operations staff have completed testing. The AI programming tool CodeBuddy has performed impressively internally, with over 90% of engineers using it, AI-generated code accounting for over 50%, and overall coding time shortened by an average of more than 40%.

ByteDance ArkClaw: Cloud SaaS, Ready-to-use

ByteDance's Volcano Engine launched ArkClaw the same day—a ready-to-use cloud SaaS version of OpenClaw.

ArkClaw needs no complex configuration, open a webpage and use it, available online 24/7. Currently, "Volcano Ark Coding Plan" users get priority access, "Coding Plan Pro" users can sync and use it by logging in, and "Coding Plan Lite" users have a 7-day free trial.

For model support, ArkClaw offers Doubao-Seed-2.0 series, Kimi2.5, MiniMax2.5, GLM and other mainstream models, with ArkClaw working with Doubao-Seed 2.0 Pro performing especially well on complex tasks.

ByteDance’s strategy is also clear: for communication tools, ArkClaw is deeply integrated with Feishu's official OpenClaw plugin, so users handling Feishu schedules, complex documents and spreadsheets need not repeatedly configure permissions—a smoother experience.

Alibaba CoPaw: Local + Cloud, Unlimited Capability Expansion

Alibaba Cloud Tongyi Lab launched CoPaw, featuring a unified experience of "local + cloud".

CoPaw highly overlaps with OpenClaw's core capabilities: creating and editing documents, organizing desktops, querying and summarizing news, scheduled tasks... In addition, it enhances installation convenience—locally, it installs with just three commands; in the cloud, it can be configured with one click in Modai Cloud Space.

A major highlight of CoPaw is high customizability: users can define the agent’s name, identity, and style, and even gradually "shape its personality" via conversation. The system will also proactively record and maintain long-term memory, accumulating user preferences and knowledge. For capability expansion, users can add or create custom Skills themselves, easily extending functionality without modifying underlying code.

Unlike WeChat or QQ integration, CoPaw focuses more on "remote control" via DingTalk and Feishu, and plans to open source on GitHub after the New Year.

The Battle for Entry Points is the Real Main Battlefield

On the surface, this competition is about whose "lobster" is easier to use and install. But fundamentally, it’s about the entry point for the next generation of AI Agents.

Previously, the logic was: users go seek AI, open an app, ask a question, wait for results, then copy back to the work scenario. This chain is too long, too high a threshold, so very few ordinary people actually used it.

Yet QClaw integrates with WeChat, WorkBuddy is compatible with Feishu and DingTalk, ArkClaw is deeply adapted for Feishu, CoPaw connects with DingTalk and Feishu... All these products point to the same judgment: The AI Agent battlefield is moving from standalone apps to communication and office tools people already use daily.

The closer an entry is to the user, the more valuable it is. When AI truly lives in your chat list, "using AI" will really become part of ordinary people's daily life.

It's worth noting that this competition has also surfaced a core problem not yet solved: security. When AI Agents truly gain local computer control, access files, and execute commands, how to prevent unauthorized access, resist malicious prompt injection, and protect data privacy—these issues are addressed in each company's enterprise-level solutions, but the industry is still far from a truly "secure bottom line".

From "can’t install in three hours" to "download and use, send a message and get the job done"—the speed of AI agent adoption is surpassing all expectations. And this entry battle has only just begun.

Risk warning and disclaimerThe market has risks, investment must be cautious. This article does not constitute individual investment advice, nor does it take into account special investment targets, financial situations, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article fit their specific circumstances. Investment based on the article is at your own risk. ```