Alibaba debuts OpenClaw app to feed China’s agentic AI addiction
Published Fri, Mar 13, 2026 · 01:44 PM
[HONG KONG] Alibaba Group Holding launched a dedicated mobile app claiming to help users install and deploy OpenClaw within minutes, stepping up a battle between China’s tech leaders to profit off the viral agentic AI assistant.
“JVS Claw” helps iOS and Android smartphone users without coding knowledge to instruct artificial intelligence (AI) agents to perform simple real-world tasks, Alibaba said. Free for 14 days, it emerged after Baidu released its own Android app this week for OpenClaw, which helps users shop online and book travel, among other things.
From Tencent Holdings to Minimax Group, China’s biggest AI players are competing to offer OpenClaw services, feeding a nationwide frenzy dubbed “raising lobsters”. They are hoping to lower barriers to entry and tap a phenomenon named after OpenClaw’s animal mascot, in which students and retirees across the nation are experimenting with agentic AI.
The craze has fuelled a market rally over the past week as investors placed bets on the emergence of services that can propel AI into the mainstream. Wide adoption should drive revenue from the consumption of tokens, needed to drive AI usage, as well as further tech innovation.
The reaction from authorities has been mixed. At least four local municipalities have introduced supporting policies for deploying and developing OpenClaw, offering millions of yuan in subsidies.
But Beijing has also moved to restrict state-run enterprises and government agencies from freely running OpenClaw AI apps on office computers, acting swiftly to defuse potential security risks.
For agentic AI such as OpenClaw to be really useful, it needs wide access to users’ data and their various apps. That makes them juicy cyberattack avenues or targets. BLOOMBERG
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