Manus will return to operating as an independent company(manus.im)
56 pointsby thm3 hours ago4 comments
  • trouve_searchan hour ago
    Does anyone here use Manus actively?

    I found it worse than alternatives in the similar space (Claude, genspark, kagi research, etc.) and slightly baffling they were being acquired at a $2B valuation in the first place.

    • simonwan hour ago
      ChatGPT Work and Claude Cowork (and OpenClaw) are established now - they weren't at all in December 2025 when Meta tried to buy Manus.
      • brazukadev25 minutes ago
        In what bubble ChatGPT Work and Claude Cowork are established? I don't know anyone using it regularly and I'm in a bubble of people using lots of AI tools.
        • csallen11 minutes ago
          > In what bubble ChatGPT Work and Claude Cowork are established? I don't know anyone using it regularly and I'm in a bubble of people using lots of AI tools.

          I have lots of highly-educated knowledge worker friends who aren't particularly techie but who swear by Claude Cowork.

        • primitivesuave18 minutes ago
          My non-technical teammates use Claude Cowork extensively. We set up MCP servers to give them audited access to certain internal services, while they just have to think of MCP as a "connector" which they can configure in the GUI.
        • throw0317201913 minutes ago
          My accountant friend says it’s amazing (he does check the work but says it’s amazingly accurate).
    • meric_42 minutes ago
      IMO I disagree. I find the built in harness (database, browser use, etc.) quite good.

      The only downside (and a big one) is that by not being natively offered by OpenAI, Anthropic, etc. you're paying @ API billing and not plan billing, which makes it less appealing. (Of course Manus has a wrapper around this w some token system, but it ends up being expensive)

      • trouve_search37 minutes ago
        Interesting, what does your tasks & workflow look like with them?

        I generally found the quality decent (say, similar to other competitors), but the speed of task completion was very slow. I think because they would depend too much on Sonnet as a core backend, and relied on big/expensive models more than other harnesses.

    • alansaberan hour ago
      Valuations are significantly leveraged compared to actual user metrics. My impression of Manus was that, like Perplexity, some users were using it to get around firewalls/regulation.
    • thm27 minutes ago
      Too expensive & unpredictable credit system.
  • econan hour ago
    Perhaps unfairly my interest suddenly dropped to zero when the acquisition was announced. The hype also seemed gone?
    • iamcoder18an hour ago
      Absolutely. Haven't heard anyone talk about recently.
  • stephantul2 hours ago
    Anyone have info on whose regulatory restrictions they are referring to?
    • galaxy_quest2 hours ago
      The Chinese government blocked Meta’s acquisition.

      https://archive.is/yFCIt

      • fmajid23 minutes ago
        The Chinese government may not be a bastion of the rule of law, but they at least seem to still have a functioning antitrust enforcement.
    • kristianc2 hours ago
      Almost certainly Chinese national-security and technology-transfer restrictions around strategic AI tech. China’s NDRC formally prohibited the acquisition and ordered the transaction unwound.
    • rangestransform2 hours ago
      China prevented the founders from leaving the country
      • minraws2 hours ago
        I think they were talking about the part,

        > As part of our transition back to independent operations and to comply with regulatory requirements in specific jurisdictions, data generated by certain users on/after December 29, 2025, will be deleted from 8:00 a.m. on August 23 through August 24, 2026 (SGT). Affected users will be able to back up their data from now until 7:59 a.m. on August 23, 2026 (SGT) and restore it starting from 8:00 a.m. on August 25, 2026 (SGT).

      • moralestapia2 hours ago
        [flagged]
    • 2 hours ago
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    • minraws2 hours ago
      I would guess EU? Technically a bunch of countries don't allow data to be with Manus aka Chinese cloud services.

      For instance, India has quite literally banned Alibaba Cloud and related.

      • makeavish2 hours ago
        No it’s Chinese state who is preventing founders from leaving China https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/06/12/meta-reportedly-begins-d...
        • tancopan hour ago
          just to be clear, they did this to make sure they follow the governments order instead of running away to Singapore and going on with the acquisition. they will most likely get released when the unwinding process is complete. its not a general national security thing where AI founders cant leave the country.
  • hnwkbmrkv2an hour ago
    [dead]