5 Outstanding Chinese Startups That Emerged in 2011

An impressive number of Chinese startups have emerged this year, polishing China’s newly-minted title as Asia’s hot-bed of entrepreneurship. These teams – made-up of either youngsters or experienced hands trying a new venture – are making services, apps, and gadgets that will draw investment and users, and add greatly to the startup ecosystem in the country.

In no particular order, here’s my personal list of five outstanding efforts that have emerged this year (though some were started-up the previous year), and which I get the feeling will be in the headlines again in 2012:

Unitedstyles

Unitedstyles is significant not only because it has an impressive website and service that makes anyone into a fashion designer and mediates with clothing factories in China to get your designs into production. It’s also a keeper because it can put people into business who might otherwise have been put off by the barriers of language, distance, and lack of connections.

At TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing, the TC crew were wowed by the site, and the startup made it to the Startup Battlefield finale.

Xiaomi

Even bigger sums of money have been going Xiaomi’s way this year, as the startup that belongs to serial entrepreneur Lei Jun went from making just a pretty Android ROM to manufacturing its own Android-powered phone – and netting an extra $90 million in financing this week – in just the space of a year.

Here’s the hands-on demo we got of the Xiaomi M1 when we dropped into the startup’s HQ in Beijing a few months ago:

Hotel Finder

Hotel Finder, made by Ikamobile, is backed by Li Kai-fu’s Innovation Works, which gives this LBS app for locating and booking hotels a great chance of being a success. While it has come late to the party that’s dominated by Ctrip (NASDAQ:CTRP) and eLong (NASDAQ:LONG), its superior – and sexier – apps point the way to travel apps having stronger mobile features.

At a recent conference in Beijing, we made use of Hotel Finder, and then get this hands-on demo of the iPad version of its app: