From Side Project to 7,000 Orders
In January, Beijing software engineer Feng Qingyang started tinkering with OpenClaw, a newly released Chinese AI tool that can take over a device — a phone, a computer, a smart appliance — and autonomously complete tasks on the user's behalf. Within weeks, he was advertising installation support on a second-hand shopping platform. By early March, he had more than 100 employees and had completed over 7,000 orders for customers who wanted OpenClaw running on their devices but lacked the technical knowledge to set it up themselves.
Feng's story is unusual in its scale but representative of a broader phenomenon. OpenClaw has become a sensation in a country where early AI adoption is often faster, broader, and more commercially creative than in Western markets. A cottage industry of installation specialists, preconfigured hardware vendors, and training service providers has sprung up around it, creating economic opportunity while raising significant questions about security risks.
What OpenClaw Does
OpenClaw is what AI researchers call an agentic system — an AI that does not just generate text or images but takes actions in the world. Given a goal, it can operate a device's interface, fill out forms, make purchases, send messages, navigate applications, and complete multi-step tasks that previously required direct human involvement. For non-technical users — which is to say the vast majority of people — OpenClaw offers capabilities previously accessible only to those who could write code or hire developers.
