Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Wenser (@wenser2010)
The "Lobster Craze" sparked by OpenClaw has slightly subsided on major social media platforms. A couple of days ago, Anthropic, the developer of Claude, directly issued a statement prohibiting "OpenClaw subscription-based free riding," leading some to exclaim, "Has OpenClaw already cooled down?"
In my opinion, against the backdrop where over 90% of the global population of 8 billion has yet to use AI applications, OpenClaw is already a phenomenal AI product. Its popularity lasting a full three months is enough to demonstrate its sensational impact. On the other hand, for the majority of people in China, perhaps compared to OpenClaw, which consumes massive amounts of Tokens, has complex configuration processes, excessively high update frequencies, and unclear security risks, Xianyu might be the "more localized OpenClaw."
Some readers might be confused seeing this: Xianyu? That second-hand trading platform? What does that have to do with OpenClaw, the current hottest topic in AI?
Let me explain in detail.
Before OpenClaw Gave AI Hands and Feet, Xianyu Had Already Become the Transaction Engine for the Physical World
"If previous Chatbots gave AI a brain; then the value of OpenClaw lies in giving AI hands and feet for the first time."
This statement emphasizes that OpenClaw enables AI Agents to possess various operational and execution capabilities, performing various tasks in the digital world on behalf of humans, and even to some extent, acting upon the physical world in reverse.
However, the more realistic problem facing everyone is that compared to Chatbots whose Token consumption per conversation remained in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, OpenClaw has skyrocketed the scale of API calls and Token usage for AI Agents to millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions. Many have bluntly stated that after the emergence of OpenClaw, to ensure effectiveness, the Token cost of using high-quality models like Claude, GPT, and Gemini can reach hundreds of dollars a day.
Yet the same task, placed as an order on Xianyu, might cost less than one percent. Yes, you read that correctly. Entering the "summer of the 21st century," the cost of human labor on the Xianyu platform has been compressed to the extreme. The time of the "poor" has also gained its own unit of measurement and pricing system—an economic system operating on RMB and Xianyu Coins.
All Trades and Professions Produce Their Topmost Masters: Travel, AI, Sales, Recruitment, Matchmaking
Xianyu frequently sparks waves of discussion. People jokingly call the omnipotent Xianyu platform the "Chinese Dark Web"—on Xianyu, there's nothing you can't think of that it can't do.
Some sell moldy oranges on Xianyu, which are spotted by biology and medical students who say they want to extract the mold for scientific research, buying them back at high prices ranging from hundreds to thousands of yuan;
Some "low-price" sell rare famous dogs on Xianyu—Belgian Wood Dogs, described as "spayed female dogs";
Battle-damaged second-hand Apple phones are considered a relatively normal "small case" on Xianyu.
As for using Xianyu to book hotels, buy tickets, purchase low-cost AI subscription memberships, find helpers, recruit people, and even for matchmaking, these are also part of the platform's "daily business."
With the unconventional creativity of Xianyu sellers, the "sources of goods" are also quite unconventional:
There are those who help others collect拖欠工资 (withheld wages), deploying an 80-year-old grandmother in a wheelchair to the front lines—
Finding someone to help book hotel breakfast, costing as low as 5 yuan, only to later find out it was obtained by threatening to jump off a building—
Wanting to go to a music festival but didn't get a ticket, you think the scalper has connections to get you in, but instead he leads you through a dog hole—
The once famous "Xianyu Air Ticket Refund Service" also sparked much discussion on social media platforms, with the behind-the-scenes trick being "applying for a user death certificate"—
Want to buy low-price scenic spot tickets? The Xianyu seller's external trick is a phone call telling the scenic spot staff "this person is almost gone"—
On this second-hand trading platform with over 200 million monthly active users, various marginal market demands hidden in the capillaries of the domestic internet market and a diverse array of flexible supplies coexist. Thus, a consumer market parallel to mainstream e-commerce platforms and even offline shopping channels has, in less than 13 years, gradually膨胀 (expanded) into today's多元 (diverse) transaction universe, recording 217 million MAU in March, even surpassing Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book).
As early as the beginning of 2024, its daily GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) had already exceeded 1 billion yuan. Now, thanks to the "AI Camera Function" launched in early March, new products on Xianyu surged by over 50 million items, with more than 12 million users participating in the experience. Furthermore, industry predictions indicate that the scale of the domestic second-hand交易 (transaction) market is expected to exceed 3.1 trillion yuan by 2026, with Xianyu playing a significant role.
The Premium Economics and Free Power Theory Behind Xianyu: Leverage, Arbitrage, Collaboration, and Productivity
The unique survival rules, distinct from other e-commerce platforms, have allowed Xianyu to rise meteorically and find its comfort zone while the domestic internet user market is陷入 (mired in)存量 (stock) competition.
Behind this现状 (status quo), there is a remarkable similarity to the rapidly developing AI in recent years and OpenClaw, which topped the GitHub star chart this year. It contains its own set of premium economics and free power theory.
Last month, Justin Sun, founder of TRON, discussed this phenomenon:
Although some wording is quite extreme, the "premium theory" and "power theory" therein indeed reveal the unique value and market pricing system of Xianyu as a second-hand trading platform. Behind these words, we can glimpse more reasons why Xianyu can be called the "Chinese Localized OpenClaw":
1. AI Limbs vs. Human and Material Leverage
If OpenClaw gave AI independent operational execution capabilities for the first time, then the value of Xianyu lies in enabling the flow, circulation, and value production of human and material resources with an extremely low threshold.
As the joke about学历贬值 (devaluation of academic qualifications) goes: "For 3000 yuan, you can't even buy a 5090 graphics card; but you can hire a college student to work for you."
Whether it's second-hand goods or cheap labor, the Xianyu platform has subjected them to full market pricing and value quantification. In a双边市场 (two-sided market) where supply far exceeds demand, the human and material resources on Xianyu are even more abundant than the AI models and Token resources required by OpenClaw.
2. Token Arbitrage vs. Bilateral Arbitrage
For countless human users, OpenClaw, which responds 24/7 and allows随意添加 (arbitrary addition of) Skill configuration files to expand capability boundaries, is undoubtedly a "Token arbitrage tool"—input the cheapest possible Token raw materials into the machine, and then produce specific content production materials according to one's指令 (instructions). Although this has led to large-scale, exponential Token usage consumption problems, it still allows countless people to experience the thrill of "mastering AI production materials" and becoming "AI capitalists" for the first time.
The commodity resources and market demand on the Xianyu platform, however, represent a form of bilateral arbitrage based on buyers and sellers—leveraging low entry costs, low handling fees (Odaily Planet Daily Note: In June 2024, the Xianyu platform announced that starting September 1 of that year, it would charge all sellers a 0.6% basic software service fee, with a maximum of 60 yuan per transaction, including individual merchants) and the platform's aggregated large-scale idle human resources to do platform business.
Moreover, similar to OpenClaw catering to both Token providers and consumer users, Xianyu also satisfies the bilateral needs of product/service providers and market demanders, and corresponds with Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
3. Lobster Collaboration vs. Human Collaboration
In terms of team collaboration, compared to OpenClaw's "Lobster Corps" or "AI Agent teams," Xianyu also has its merits, which is筛选 (screening for) professional "mercenaries" that meet different requirements, possess different abilities, and play various roles.
Like the intelligent driving in the new energy vehicle sector, the intent engine highly praised in the cryptocurrency market, and the self-driving, self-evolving, self-developing large language models in the AI field, Xianyu can also be seen as a "screening platform" for finding collaborative members.
In essence, the puzzles formed by the technologies and personnel involved above are all the same thing. The ultimate goal of the users is所思即所求 (what you think is what you want),所言即所用 (what you say is what you use),所见即所得 (what you see is what you get).
4. Information Productivity vs. Information Gap Productivity
Strictly speaking, AI does not originally create information. Large language models and various AI Agents merely follow reasoning rules, combine, match, and call upon various information raw materials (including text, images, videos, and other multimodal content), and finally output information products in different forms.
In contrast, humans can not only absorb information and learn from it but also produce various types of information, and can create information gaps through various types of information to create value accordingly. The various service providers on Xianyu have their own subjective judgment abilities, self-screening abilities, and self-driving abilities.
For overseas countries where labor costs remain high and population aging is accelerating, AI Agent applications represented by OpenClaw and embodied intelligent robots may open a new "window of productivity development" for them;而对于 (for) the domestic internet population enjoying past demographic dividends, resource dividends, and even manufacturing dividends, perhaps an internet labor and commodity service provision platform like Xianyu is a better solution. Just as Robin Li, founder of Baidu, once revealed the赤裸裸的真相 (naked truth)—in exchanging privacy for convenience, Chinese people have always been utterly uninhibited. In front of Xianyu, which efficiently convinces users to主动交出 (actively hand over) personal information for convenience, OpenClaw with its potential security risks can only be considered a small巫 (witch)见大巫 (seeing a great witch - meaning pale in comparison).
Facing the declining热度 (heat) of AI Agents and OpenClaw, looking from another perspective, the biggest reason might be—
Xianyu, the OpenClaw more suited for Chinese users.
References:
Has OpenClaw Cooled Down?
Haven't Been on Xianyu for 3 Days, How Did It Become the Chinese Dark Web?!
The Chinese Version of the Dark Web Really Knows What Young People Want
Xianyu Doesn't Want to Compare with Xiaohongshu Either, But It Really Has No Choice
600 Million People Are Looking for Services on It, The Worse the Economy, The Hotter the "Chinese Dark Web"?
