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A German entrepreneur living in China for over 10 years told BI what the OpenClaw hype was like there.
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Thomas Derksen said the OpenClaw craze in China felt like “the beginning of AI for everyone”.
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He also shared why he thinks the West should take note of the Chinese eclipse.
This essay is based on a conversation with Thomas Dirksen, a German entrepreneur who has lived in China for over a decade. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I have been living in China since 2016 and own a market intelligence business.
There’s a lot going on in China, and I’m always interested in how things are different in the West and in Asia.
As soon as I saw the news that thousands of people lined up outside the Tencent headquarters, I found it very interesting. A lot of old people and retirees showed up.
I brought some friends, and we went to Tencent’s headquarters in Shenzhen to install QC Claw. That’s their version of OpenClaw, which lives within the WeChat ecosystem.
I wanted to go because I think this is history. This is the beginning of AI for everyone, not just computer nerds.
OpenClaw craze in China
The hype is real. In Xiaohongshu and Xianyu, people started offering paid OpenClaw installation services, charging 50 to 700 yuan, or about $7 to $101, per setup. That tells you something: the demand was so high that a microeconomy popped up to help people get started.
In the end, it’s just a tool. If you offer it to someone without a real use case or business idea, maybe they’ll use it once and never use it again.
In China there are people finding real use cases for it. For example, I read a story about a man who ran a lobster shop. She uses OpenClaw to scan her online reviews and find out what young people want to eat and adjusts her menu accordingly. It’s amazing. It’s actually changing — and not just a toy.
We also see the Chinese government supporting OpenClaw because it thinks it’s good for young people to build their own businesses, especially one-person businesses.
This is a new trend. It’s not about building a team of 100 people. It’s one or two people with 100 AI agents.
People in China are more optimistic and curious about technology
In Germany, it is more stable, so people feel like their life is okay.
Chinese people are more curious, and they have a strong business mentality. They always think of finding ways to make money.
In Asia, I see a drive to build a better life for the next generation. Some people don’t think that ordinary jobs will 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 what’s happening in Asia, understand it, and learn from it — ask why it’s working so well and what can be learned.
Another thing is hope. People in Asia believe that if they work hard and learn new things, the future will be better.
When you go to Shenzhen, it’s not just the Chinese who work there. There are also foreigners. They all come to China because they know there is a strong ecosystem there – financing, supply chain, logistics.
China is a great place to build your own startup, especially in innovation, technology, hardware and robotics. Everyone is diligent and hard working. There is a sense that the country has real industries where it leads. People can point to solid areas and say, “We’re strong here.”
In Germany, that confidence has declined. The auto industry, which has been the backbone of Germany for decades, is losing ground. Defense spending is a constant source of frustration. Startups find it difficult because taxes are high and there is no strong culture of subsidies for new technologies.
When your biggest industry is under pressure, and you don’t see a replacement for it, pessimism sets in.
The difference in how people react to something like OpenClaw reflects that. In China, a crayfish shop owner sees a device and thinks: Maybe I can use it to grow my business. In Germany, the first reaction would probably be: Will it take my job?
Do you have a story to share about technology in Asia? Contact this reporter cmlee@businessinsider.com.
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