Crowdsourcing In Beijing: Cool Ideas Need Your Yuan

There’s never been a better time to try your hand at online entrepreneurship. A quick peek at all launched Beijing-based crowdsourcing projects on Kickstarter tells me that nearly 60 percent of proposed projects have been successfully funded: 34 successful (including three that are still active) versus 23 unsuccessful. Here’s a quick rundown of some ongoing projects on Kickstarter and its Chinese counterpart, Demohour.

Bamboo Bicycles Beijing (Funded at time of writing, 45 hours left)

Having reached his initial target of USD 15,000 a few days back, David Chin Fei-Wang has already established a workshop in Beijing devoted to helping residents make their own sustainable bamboo bikes. Every additional donation will help create a permanent social enterprise geared towards finding renewable bamboo sources in China for the project as well as providing a hub for dialogue around mobility and how it shapes our lives in the city. An extremely worthwhile venture backed by some great looking bikes.

Eluvia The Space Between {the beginning and the end} (USD 2,370 of 3,000 at time of writing, five days left)

Eluvia are a Beijing-based trio looking to record their debut album, with the majority of what is raised going towards design and distribution of the final product. Self-described as sounding somewhere between Jason Mraz and Joni Mitchell, Bob Marley and Motown, Jack Johnson and Counting Crows, Eluvia are taking a shotgun approach to drawing in funders with the aim of sharing an ‘authentic’ product about life, what else? If that sounds like your kind of thing, head over and help push them over their target.

VOW Headphones (USD 3,767 of 100,000 at time of writing, 46 days to go)

VOW claims to have invented the first pair 'smart' headphones, which are basically headphones with a detachable unit that both stores music and has the ability to stream from the Internet/3G/Bluetooth. Credentials? Bob the designer drew inspiration from a Lamborghini’s rims and Founder Gary Chen tells us that the sound quality is better than Beats. Hesitantly. They definitely look bigger than them. Also, the screen lets anyone see what your listening to so next time you’re in the mood for some Finding Nemo OST, the cutie next to you on the subway won’t be able to resist crushing your bliss with irritating conversation. Still a loooong way to go on this one.

PP Gun (Funded at time of writing, 42 days left)

It’s big. It’s badass. It’s … PP Gun. And it’s worth 30 seconds of your time purely for the huge lock-and-load Eye of the Tiger-backed video buildup, just to see a guy standing around in his underwear (not visible, but presumed). Basically, with this one, you stick your tablet onto a plastic gun reminiscent of the NES Zapper I used to rock for Duck Hunt, then you wave it around maniacally until your mum smacks you around the head for stabbing the cat with it. It is after all hard to have fun with a gun that doesn’t shoot bullets. If you’re anything like the laowai featured in the video (six minutes in), a lack of bullets will lead you to utilize scare tactics instead, brandishing your weapon close to your opponent’s, well, umm, weapon. Don’t even bother funding this. It’s so far over target you’ll get one free with your next gai fan.

Think you can do better? Go get inventing!

Photos: BambooBicyclesBeijing, Eluvia, VOW, PP Gun