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Best Chinese Tech Clones of 2011

Cloning or copycatting is nothing new in China, but it’s still interesting. For Westerners, especially Americans they loathe cloning. It hurts their pride and is an insult to their creativity and hard work. For Chinese, they love it! It comes as second nature and presents grand opportunity to seize a massive market potential.

For people outside China, they wonder why Chinese love to copy things. After being here a while, most people figure out, it’s the way they were taught to learn. Follow the teacher, recite books, don’t challenge. This mentality grows and sticks with people as they mature. Moreover, I’m sure many start-ups think, “Why shouldn’t I copy?” If the business model has been proven overseas and they know how to adapt it to China, then by not copying, it almost represents a missed opportunity. When I interviewed the co-founder of Match.com, Peng Ong (now a Partner at GSR Ventures) he said “Copying is a form of innovation. The best company’s never just copy, they copy and then localize. It’s like jazz, you have a basic rhythm and structure and you move around that. Is jazz copying? I don’t think there is any original idea. Google is a copy.” I’ve realized that the term ‘Innovation’ can be interpreted in many ways. In China, I feel it means ‘to adapt and improve’, which is still a valid interpretation. To some degree everyone learns by copying, babies do it, adults do it. But where it becomes a touchy subject, is when Chinese clones don’t just copy the business model, they copy everything except the logo! Since Chinese are expert copiers from Nike shoes to Italian made furniture to tech start-ups, this skill ought to be commended. We have covered clones in separate posts, but we thought we should compile them and award the best tech clones of companies that were hot in 2011. The winning place is based on having a market leader position in the market perception. Of course all the original start-ups that made it big, originate from America, particularly the Silicon Valley. Here we go, drum roll please!

1. Groupon - First and largest group buying site in the world

Winner – Meitun, finished 2011 as number 1 group buying site by revenue

Honorable mention – Lashou, had a good fight with Meituan

2. AirBnb - First and largest vacation and private room rental site in the world

Winner – Airizu, the earliest clone in China

Honorable mention –Mayi, operated by one of China’s largest classified sites Ganji 3. Tumblr - largest light blogging platform in the world

Winner – DianDian, incubated by Innovation Works and raised US$10M

Honorable mention – Lofter, spawned out of internet giant, NetEase


4. Pinterest - the hottest social bookmarking site right now, with fast growth and salivating VC’s

Winner – Huaban, from the makers from the best Flickr clone

Honorable mention – J.RenRen, from the makers of China’s Facebook, RenRen
5. Gilt - Exclusive discount luxury goods site

Winner – Xiu, to satisfy China’s insatiable demand for luxury and brand names

Honorable mention – VIPstore, last raised a new round from Intel Capital

6. Flipboard - First and most popular iPad magazine app

Winner – Zaker, the earliest Flipboard clone emerged when Flipboard was blocked out of China

Honorable mention – Xianguo, from the makers of a popular RSS reader 7. Kik - One of the most popular mobile messaging apps

Winner – Weixin, a mobile app that is rolling Kik, Talkbox, Foursquare, Bump into one

Honorable mention – Miliao, from Lei Jun, regarded as China’s Steve Jobs

8. TechCrunch - One of the best tech blogs about start-ups, tech trends and news

Winner – TechNode, hey we have heroes too! Sorry Kai.

Honorable mention – Techrice, great insight and analysis of China’s tech landscape One noticeable trend is that the best clones are often created by very large Chinese tech companies with existing resources and money. This shows how tough the environment is for grassroots start-ups who are trying to compete against the big guys. It is also a criticism of the health of China’s start-up eco-system, that big companies can and will simply crush anyone they see as a threat. Such a dynamic explains why the M&A market is not as active as it is in America.

Now that we are already flying through 2012, what will be the next hot clones to emerge out of China?