Shenzhen can now establish "single-person" jewelry companies, and niche OPC communities are becoming a new trend.

Ask AI · How can AI agents help jewelry OPC communities solve industry pain points?

Reporter Chen Siqi, 21st Century Business Herald, Shenzhen

Right now, the “solo company” (OPC) wave is sweeping across the country. In cities everywhere, people are rolling out OPC communities, leveraging well-developed support such as space, computing power, and capital to attract “super individual” talent.

Shenzhen is among the leading cities in building “solo companies.” In January this year, the “Action Plan for Shenzhen to Build an AI OPC Startup Ecosystem as a Benchmark and a Leading Destination (2026—2027)” was released and implemented. The plan targets that by the end of 2027, the total area of OPC communities across the city will exceed 500,000 square meters, forming an AI OPC startup ecosystem characterized by resource aggregation, clear functions, industrial clustering, and organic interconnection.

After combing through information, this reporter found that besides the first batch of 10重点建设的 OPC communities, such as “Moli Talent Incubator,” “Angel Hui,” and “π Innovation Space,” Shenzhen’s districts are also building OPC communities along vertical tracks based on their own industrial strengths.

For example, in Luohu District, the country’s first gold-and-jewelry vertical OPC community, “E+OPC Jewelry Community,” has been launched in Luohu. In Longgang District, they are building an “ultra-high-definition OPC community.” In Bao’an District, the first AI hardware OPC community, “Dafangfang AI Hardware OPC·hub,” has been established. In the Qianhai Cooperation Zone, leveraging the advantages of Shenzhen–Hong Kong collaboration and internationalization, they are building “Qianhai OPC International Community,” among others.

As a result, Shenzhen is providing more precise growth soil for OPC projects. Entrepreneurs can choose the most suitable regional landing and development based on their technical direction, capital needs, and business characteristics.

(Qianhai OPC International Community)

Luohu: Launching the first gold-and-jewelry OPC community

Shenzhen’s Shuibei is known as “China’s Jewelry Capital.” As the world’s largest jewelry clustering area, Shuibei’s annual wholesale shipment value exceeds 120 billion yuan, accounting for 50% of the domestic jewelry market.

On the other side of the industry scale advantage, the gold-and-jewelry industry faces pain points such as slow creative-to-production conversion. According to a report from “Luohu Unveils,” on March 20, the E+OPC Jewelry Community was launched in Shuibei. This is the first jewelry vertical OPC community in the country, and it will explore new paths for the digital and intelligent transformation of the jewelry industry.

The AI agent Open Crab, which started the internal testing in parallel, is an AI digital butler built specifically for the jewelry B-end vertical industry. Compared with general-purpose agents, Open Crab is designed around jewelry-industry pain points, featuring four core modules such as the Crab Head cloud management center and Crab Core edge-end cross-platform collaboration. It offers advantages including multi-device adaptation, data security, and natural language interaction, supporting end-to-end functions such as generating jewelry design inspiration, automatically organizing orders, real-time analysis of precious-metal market trends, intelligent marketing and customer acquisition, and cross-system data synchronization.

(Shuibei area. Photo/ Huang Zixiao)

According to the municipal-level plan, among the first batch of 10重点建设的 OPC communities, two were selected in Luohu District: π Innovation Space and Puyue Innovation Center. The E+OPC Jewelry Community will complement differentiation with the OPC communities Luohu has already laid out, building an efficient enablement system specifically for people in the jewelry industry, brands, and designers.

Currently, the E+OPC Jewelry Community has signed agreements with nine high-quality partners, including the Shenzhen Arts & Crafts and Gift Industry Association, the Shenzhen–Hong Kong Cultural Brand Property Rights Alliance, and Shuibei Jewelry Cloud Warehouse. With resources shared and complementary advantages, they are working together to co-build a jewelry OPC ecosystem.

Longgang: Unveiling the first ultra-high-definition OPC community

In 2025, the ultra-high-definition video industry became Guangdong Province’s 10th trillion-yuan industrial cluster and the nation’s first trillion-yuan industrial cluster in this sector, with full-year revenue reaching 10803.06 billion yuan.

Behind the “trillion-yuan” figure, Shenzhen’s industrial strength is particularly strong, with Longgang District among its main gathering areas. Longgang District not only has the only national-level manufacturing innovation center in the ultra-high-definition video field—the National Ultra High-Definition Innovation Center (Shenzhen)—it also brings together a group of leading companies such as Konka Technology, Zhaochi Co., Ltd., and Absen Optoelectronics. Within the district, the “Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Ultra-High-Definition Digital Creation Industrial Park” is building a platform centered on “AI + 5G + 8K,” driving the integration of content and technology innovation.

In line with the OPC wave, on March 17, Longgang District’s ultra-high-definition OPC community was officially unveiled, becoming a three-in-one innovation industrial platform in the Greater Bay Area that integrates “ultra-high-definition + AI agents + OPC incubation.”

According to the introduction, the community was jointly built by three parties: Longgang District’s Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports Bureau; Longgang District’s Artificial Intelligence (Robotics) Bureau; and the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Ultra-High-Definition Digital Creation Industrial Park. It relies on the park’s exclusive incubation setup constructed from resources such as the AI smart computing center, an 8K post-production center, a public service platform for content production in XR virtual studios, and an ultra-high-definition screening and approval room.

(Source of image: Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Ultra-High-Definition Digital Creation Park)

In traditional film and television production models, high equipment costs, complex technical thresholds, and large demands for manpower often keep many creative individual creators out. The ultra-high-definition OPC community will rely on the park’s full-chain technology and film/TV software and hardware resources to provide settling OPC entities with end-to-end support, from basic computing power to professional production scenarios and technical service safeguards.

At present, the ultra-high-definition OPC community has introduced film and television creation studios from Hong Kong, including Wang Qiliang, Gao Zhiwei, and Ma Xianliang, among others. It has also brought in local technology film/TV companies such as Guangdong Zhanjiao Artificial Intelligence, Shenzhen Ten Seconds Culture, and Shenzhen Feixiang Intelligent, exploring how to complement each other’s advantages between the two regions.

Bao’an: Launching the first AI hardware OPC community

Also as an industrial powerhouse district, Bao’an District has all 31 major categories of manufacturing, with 58,000 manufacturing enterprises clustered there and cultivating several trillion-yuan-level emerging industry clusters, including intelligent terminals, ultra-high-definition display, semiconductors and integrated circuits.

Against this backdrop, the first OPC community focused on AI hardware—the Dafangfang AI Hardware OPC·hub—was launched in Bao’an District. When Dafangfang CEO Ding Chunfa was interviewed by the media, he said that within one week after the community started, it received hundreds of inquiries from entrepreneurs both domestic and overseas. There are already 25 teams settled in, and “solo companies” account for more than 60%.

(Source of image: Binhai Bao’an)

At the district level, Bao’an District proposed building the country’s first systematic industrial support system for hard-tech entrepreneurship in OPCs by using “scenarios + finance + manufacturing.”

On the scenarios front, relying on the construction of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area Scenario Innovation Center (intelligent manufacturing), Bao’an, following the principle that “openness is the norm and non-openness is the exception,” is promoting the opening of application scenarios across the entire area. This provides OPC hard-tech entrepreneurship with comprehensive major scenarios, integrated industry-domain scenarios, and high-value small-entry scenarios.

On the finance front, Bao’an District will provide ample capital support for OPC hard-tech entrepreneurship by building the “Baoqi Jinfu” brand, integrating government-guided funds, “Three Firsts” product policy support (first major technical equipment, first batches of new materials, and first versions of software), government procurement innovation product support policies, and more.

On manufacturing empowerment, the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area Industrial Internet Public Technology Service Platform will integrate resources from 58,000 manufacturing enterprises, providing OPC hard-tech entrepreneurship with end-to-end manufacturing services from small-batch trial production to large-scale production. By opening up the industrial internet identifier resolution secondary nodes and jointly building scenario laboratories, they reduce the trial-and-error cost for OPC hard-tech entrepreneurship, accelerating technological iteration and market validation.

According to “Binhai Bao’an,” Bao’an District currently has more than 230,000 “solo companies.” For incubation-type OPC communities such as Dafangfang, Bao’an District’s market regulation authority will include them in a seedling-growth program, and set up a normalized communication and service mechanism. They will provide policy guidance in areas such as business registration, intellectual property protection, and product standards, helping OPCs grow bigger and stronger.

Qianhai: Targeting six categories of internationally oriented talent

At Guangdong’s “first meeting of the new year,” Siemens revealed that it will establish in Qianhai the first digital platform industrial base in China—Siemens Xcelerator China Industrial Ecosystem Center and the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area Industrial AI Innovation Base.

Represented by Siemens, Qianhai has become one of the preferred destinations for foreign investment entering China. In 2025, actual foreign investment used reached 29.32 billion yuan, accounting for 58.1% of the city’s total, and it has clustered more than 13,000 foreign-invested enterprises.

Against this backdrop, Qianhai’s cultivation goal for “super individuals” focuses on internationally oriented talent. Recently, the Qianhai OPC International Community officially opened its application channel for settlement. Core founders can apply if they meet any of the following traits, and selection will be conducted accordingly:

• Academic vanguard: Serving as an assistant professor or above at globally renowned universities; or holding a PhD degree and conducting scientific research at globally renowned universities for 36 months or more.
• Technology helmsman: Serving as a technology director, senior engineer, or above at globally renowned technology companies; or working in R&D at globally renowned technology companies for 36 months or more, leading or deeply participating in market star products.
• Star of the competition: Winning awards in globally renowned competitions, AI academic conferences, or nationally renowned innovation and entrepreneurship contests.
• Genius youth: Selected for programs such as “Genius Youth” at globally renowned technology companies; or students and graduates of programs such as “Youth Class” and “Top Talent Track” at globally renowned universities.
• Innovation achiever: Publishing influential projects on globally mainstream open-source platforms (e.g., GitHub Star>500); or having a single-article technical piece with more than 100,000 reads on mainstream media platforms; or having a single product ranked in the top 50 on mainstream platform rankings.
• Young emerging talents: Earning a master’s degree or above in related fields such as artificial intelligence, computer science, or software engineering at globally renowned universities.

(“Building 5” in Qianhai)

It’s not hard to see that through a systematic layout of vertical OPC communities, Shenzhen is turning diverse industrial accumulation into a core competitive advantage for “one-person-army” entrepreneurs in the AI era—providing more precise growth soil for OPCs with different technical backgrounds and business directions.