TechMoat Consulting

We help businesses increase digital growth and strengthen digital AI moats. Get our free newsletter and Tech Strategy podcast.

[Jeffrey Towson 陶迅 @JeffreyTowson]

Alipay tap on elevator video screens.

The videos show you an offer

You tap your phone to get the coupon.

Then you go into the store to redeem.

[Jeffrey Towson 陶迅 @JeffreyTowson]

TENCENT’S AI AGENT SURGE: WORKBUDDY, CODEBUDDY, AND QCLAW TAKE CENTER STAGE

Tencent has launched a specialized trio of AI agents

1: WorkBuddy is a general everyday assistant for workflows like documents and presentations.

This is their flagship agent. It is going international soon.

2: CodeBuddy is for developer and software development tasks

3: QClaw is a personal local desktop automation agent. This is available internationally.

These agents connect with WeChat and WeChat Work to leverage Tencent's massive communication ecosystem.

This product rollout highlights Tencent's focus on high value use cases within its core distribution channels.

Read here for more.

#workbuddy #codebuddy #qclaw #tencent

https://t.co/FYoU9CDdHK

[Jeffrey Towson 陶迅 @JeffreyTowson]

HOW TO USE TENCENT’S NEW WORKBUDDY AND QCLAW AI AGENTS OUTSIDE OF CHINA

In the past week, Tencent has made its flagship agents available internationally.

See JPEG for website to access.

1: WorkBuddy

This is the one I am focused on. It’s for workflow and productivity.

2: QClaw

A general assistant. I’m playing around with this.

3: CodeBuddy

For coding.

[Jeffrey Towson 陶迅 @JeffreyTowson]

Seedance is super fun

[Jeffrey Towson 陶迅 @JeffreyTowson]

TENCENT LAUNCHES WORKBUDDY AS ITS FLAGSHIP AGENT PRODUCT

Tencent has been moving fast in AI and especially agents this month. And their flagship agent product is WorkBuddy.

Here’s what makes it different (so far)

1. It Integrates with WeChat. Giving you Mobile Control.

The platform connects to your desktop with WeChat.

So, you can control an office PCs in person or remotely from a mobile device.

Overall, it has both cloud and local operations for task management.

2. WorkBuddy interfaces with both the OpenClaw and Hermes Agent ecosystems.

Tencent has been coordinating with OpenClaw, recently launching QClaw (internationally)

This unifies the two major open-source agent frameworks (and their skill sets) into a single enterprise desktop tool.

3. Integration with Tencent SkillHub Ecosystem

The agent relies on Tencent’s new SkillHub marketplace, which contains over 22,000 specialized skills (lot of that is OpenClaw right now).

The short video introduction is pretty good.

#tencent #workbuddy #agents

[TechMoat Consulting @TechMoat]

TENCENT UNVEILS ACCELERATED GENAI AND AGENT STRATEGY

1-Tencent has rebooted its AI engine

2-Hunyuan Hy3 is the first big move

3-Agents are the big focus

Read here for more

https://t.co/hmgHtJbSLY

[Jeffrey Towson 陶迅 @JeffreyTowson]

A fascinating visit to Galbot robotics in Beijing.

The coffee stand is pretty cool.

But it’s the convenience store robot that is getting global attention.

It’s still slow.

But it does the job.

It works 24/7

And it has a cute personality.

[Jeffrey Towson 陶迅 @JeffreyTowson]

GALBOT ROBOTICS: CHINA’S EMBODIED AI BREAKTHROUGH

In 2025, we had the “DeepSeek moment”.

A Chinese startup shocked the AI world with its high performance, open source, low cost model.

Then 2 months ago, we had the “Seedance moment.”

Low cost Video generation reached Hollywood levels of quality.

Now it’s the “Galbot moment”

These are Robots with embodied AI.

That work 24/7

That will be low cost.

And they have already been deployed by the thousands in Chinese retail, healthcare and logistics.

[Jeffrey Towson 陶迅 @JeffreyTowson]

THE WINNERS AND LOSERS IN SEEDANCE’S DISRUPTION OF HOLLYWOOD

I really like Muay Thai and kick boxing. I watch it all the time. I practice.

And I suck at it.

My flexibility is terrible. I have no reach. I am slow.  

I’m really just awful.

So, I’m now using Seedance 2.0 (ByteDance) as my primary strategy for Muay Thai

See video. And no, that’s not my body. Like at all.

Seedance is amazing.

But it is totally disrupting Hollywood.

Here are my predicted winners:

1-Viewers. It’s amazing. Tons of content on the way.

2-GPUs and data centers. Plus, energy providers. Lots of demand is coming.
IP holders that already get lots of attention.

3-Independent creators who can use the tools to get attention and creative satisfaction.

4-Business content creators – especially in creating ads and content.

5-Platform biz models. Audience builders like YouTube and TikTok. Plus, marketplaces like Taobao.

6-iQiyi and other businesses that combine streaming and audience builders.

7-Netflix and pure streamers (maybe).

Here are my predicted losers:

1-Most professional production companies. Most tv and film studios. Basically, any business that has been relying on scale and expertise in content creation.

2-Ad agencies focused on content creation. Same reason.

3-Individuals and firms with specialized skills related to tv and film production. Camera guys. Most CGI.

4-Independent content creators trying to monetize. Sorry, it’s now a free commodity.

5-Hollywood’s managerial class.

6-Political activists embedded in entertainment.

Listen to this podcast for more.

#bytedance #seedance

https://t.co/pPFKhNYl5A

[Mark Gadala-Maria @markgadala]

We've evolved from Cat Fu to Cat Ninja

AI moves so fast.

[Jeffrey Towson 陶迅 @JeffreyTowson]

MAKING A TRANSFORMERS MOVIE JUST GOT 99% CHEAPER

Another day, another Seedance video that shocks me.

Compare this video (sound on is much better) to the Transformers movies:

For those live action movies:

-Average production budget was $170M

-Average production cost per minute was $1.2M

-Average time for principal photography was 4-6 months

-Average staff for principal photography was 500-1,000

-Total production staff was 1,500 to 2,000

This video was probably done in an hour. By one person. For like $20.

This is an industry wide disruption.

Mostly Coming from China GenAI leaders (ByteDance, Minimax, Kling)

[TechMoat Consulting @TechMoat]

Overall early PDD is a great story about how Chinese hyper-competition breeds relentless customer innovation.

You can read more here.

[TechMoat Consulting @TechMoat]

HOW PINDUODUO WENT FROM STARTUP TO ECOMMERCE GIANT IN RECORD TIME

Launched in 2015 against a duopoly with 80%+ of mkt, PDD hit 800M users in 6 yrs

Phase 1: Crashing the Party

It went for lower-tier cities. And offered cheap, gamified shopping.

https://t.co/78DsPpboBc

[TechMoat Consulting @TechMoat]

Phase 3: The Start Up That Shook the Giants

Alibaba and JD were shocked.

Jack Ma reappeared. So did founders Joe Tsai and Eddie Wu took charge.

And the whole company reorganized for speed.

At JD, founder Richard Liu also came back with a “back to basics” war cry.

[Jeffrey Towson 陶迅 @JeffreyTowson]

When people talk about the long tail of user generated content, I think about this.

Sound on :)

[Jeffrey Towson 陶迅 @JeffreyTowson]

WHY CATS ARE BIG SEEDANCE STARS

It’s funny but cats are everywhere in seedance videos.

But it’s pretty logical.

Engagement Gold: Videos with pets are scroll-stoppers. Lots of humor. Lots of likes and shares.

Cat Fighting Works Somehow: AI takes a cat's natural agility and perfectly maps it to rhythmic beats.

Fighting cats just really works in video. It’s weird.

Zero IP Issues: You can bypass copyright strikes associated with movie clips or celebrity likenesses.

No Uncanny Valley: They look real and if they don’t it looks funny.

Seedance is unlocking a huge long tail of creative content.

And most of it going to be unpredictable.

Like the current cat thing.

[Al-Shamus @im_shahid7]

Hollywood is cooked 😂
Made with Seedance 2.0

[TechMoat Consulting @TechMoat]

THE WINNERS AND LOSERS IN SEEDANCE’S COMPLETE DISRUPTION OF HOLLYWOOD

Seedance has democratized high-end video production, allowing anyone to create Hollywood-quality content.

Listen to this podcast for my complete list of winners and losers.

https://t.co/4tfI885XTv

[Jeffrey Towson 陶迅 @JeffreyTowson]

CHARACTER REPLACEMENT IS RUINING CUTE ANIME FOR ME

Ok. I hate this.

Yes, you can now easily film and then replace yourself with anyone.

Unfortunately, that includes cute anime stuff.

Try to watch K Pop Demon Hunters without thinking about a guy like this doing the actual dancing to create it.

Ugh.

Yeah, content creators are getting superpowers. Hollywood quality films and tv are being democratized.

Merchants and brands are going to dramatically expand their content creation.

Watch for Digital KOLs and brand ambassadors to explode in volume.

But this guy dancing still bugs me.

Most of these are by Kuaishou’s Kling

But I’m playing a lot with Alibaba’s Wan too.