Can Installing “Longxia” Earn You ¥100,000 a Month? If You’ve Seen This, You’re Not Far from Being Fleeced…

Viral pitch, real-life hustle

Can installing “Longxia” really make you ¥100,000 a month? Reportedly, that’s the headline being used to sell a new service economy around OpenClaw — an open‑source, self‑hosted AI agent framework nicknamed “Longxia” (龙虾) in China because users “raise” it on local hardware. It has been reported that social feeds and short videos are full of pitches promising windfall returns from one‑off installations or short courses teaching others to “install Longxia.” But the underlying market looks much less like tech adoption and more like a reseller/recruitment play that funnels fees to installers, course sellers and platform vendors rather than delivering predictable income to ordinary buyers.

The installation economy

What’s actually being sold is convenience and a veneer of expertise. OpenClaw requires Node.js setups, command‑line work and API keys — technical hurdles most consumers can’t cross. So entrepreneurs have turned “setup” into a product: it has been reported that some overseas services advertise $3,000–$6,000 for hosted or on‑site setups, while Chinese marketplaces list hundreds to thousands of RMB per install. One report said a Taobao (淘宝) shop sold over 3,000 installation services in a month, generating roughly ¥300,000–¥450,000 in revenue; another claimed individuals charge ¥450 for on‑site installs. These figures are reportedly cherry‑picked examples, not proof of sustainable, scalable business for most participants. Who profits? Usually the sellers of the shovel, not the prospector.

Security, cost and operational risks

The technical reality is worse. OpenClaw itself is a framework and does not include models — it relies on cloud API calls that cost money, and it runs periodic background checks that can trigger high usage. Developers have reported that background wake‑ups alone can consume roughly $20 a day, or about $750 a month, without delivering useful output. It has been reported that security scans found more than 42,000 OpenClaw instances exposed to the public internet, and that over 90% could be accessed without authentication, enabling attackers to steal API keys or private data. There are also documented cases of agents deleting mailboxes or behaving unpredictably when given excessive privileges — examples that underline the operational hazards of handing control to poorly configured autonomous agents.

Bigger picture and a simple warning

China’s tech giants are paying attention. Alibaba (阿里巴巴) and Ant Group (蚂蚁集团) executives have recently been publicly discussing what will matter for people in an AI era — while ordinary users rush to buy short cuts into the same technology. Geopolitics matters too: reliance on foreign cloud APIs (OpenAI, Meta, AWS etc.) means access and cost can be affected by export controls, sanctions or shifting trade policy, adding another layer of risk. Bottom line: if a social post promises easy six‑figure paydays for “installing Longxia,” treat it as marketing, not income advice. Reportedly, most of the money is lining pockets upstream — not making everyday users rich.