I’ve lived in China for over 10 years and saw the OpenClaw craze unfold. The West needs to keep up.

• A German entrepreneur who has lived in China for over 10 years told BI what the OpenClaw excitement is like there.

• Thomas Derksen said the OpenClaw craze in China feels like “the beginning of AI for everyone.”

• He also shared why he thinks the West should take notes on Chinese adoption.

This article, as told, is based on a conversation with German entrepreneur Thomas Derksen, who has lived in China for more than a decade. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I’ve been living in China since 2016 and own a market intelligence business.

A lot of things are happening in China, and I’m always interested in how things are different in China. In the West and Asia.

When I saw the news that thousands of people were lining up in front of Tencent headquarters, I thought it was very interesting. There were many elderly and retirees who came.

I brought a few friends and we went. Tencent’s headquarters in Shenzhen To install QC Claw. This is their version of OpenClaw that lives in the WeChat ecosystem.

I wanted to go because I think it’s history. This is the beginning of artificial intelligence for everyone, not just computer enthusiasts.

OpenClaw craze in China

The excitement is real. On Xiaohongshu and Xianyu, people started offering paid OpenClaw installation services, charging 50 to 700 yuan per installation, or about $7 to $101. This tells you something: Demand was so high that a microeconomics emerged to help people get started.

After all, it’s just a tool. If you offer it to someone with no real use case or business idea, maybe they’ll use it once and never use it again.

There are people in China who have found real use cases for this. For example, I read a story about someone who ran a lobster shop. He uses OpenClaw to scan online reviews, figure out what teens want to eat, and adjust his menu accordingly. This is great. It actually makes a change; Moreover, it is not just a toy.

We also see: Chinese government supports OpenClaw because he thinks it is good for young people to start their own businesses, especially one-person businesses.

This is a new trend. It’s not about building a team of 100 people. It consists of one or two people with 100 AI agents.

People in China are more optimistic and curious about technology

In Germany, the situation is more stable, so people think their lives are fine as they are.

People in China are more curious and have a strong business mentality. They are always thinking about finding ways to make money.

I see in Asia an effort to build a better life for the next generation. Some people think that normal jobs will not give them a good future, so they try OpenClaw to build something.

There is a general openness to technology and innovation. I hope people can see, understand and learn from what is happening in Asia; They may ask why it works so well and what can be learned.

Another thing is optimism. People in Asia believe that the future will be better if they work hard and learn new things.

When you go to Shenzhen, you see only Chinese working there. They are also foreigners. They all come to China because they know there is a strong ecosystem (financing, supply chain, logistics).

China is a great place to start your own startup, especially in the fields of innovation, technology, hardware and technology. and robotics. Everyone is passionate and hardworking. There is a sense that there are real sectors in which the country is leading. People can point to concrete sectors and say, “We are strong here.”

In Germany, this trust has eroded. The automotive industry, which has been the backbone of Germany for decades, is losing strength. Defense spending is a constant source of frustration. Start-ups are having a hard time due to high taxes and a lack of a strong subsidy culture for new technologies.

Pessimism occurs when your biggest industry is under pressure and you can’t see what will replace it.

The difference in how people respond to something like OpenClaw reflects this. A crawfish shop owner in China sees a tool and thinks: Maybe I can use this to: grow my business. The first reaction in Germany will probably be: Will this take my job?

Do you have a story to share about tech in Asia? Contact this reporter at: cmlee@businessinsider.com.

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