Asia's Young Entrepreneurs

Led by China and India, Asia’s superfast economies have dazzled observers for the last decade. But until recently the defining feature of most of them was corporate bigness.

In Japan and South Korea respectively, the traditional dominance of the keiretsu, or business alliances, and chaebol, or industrial conglomerates, made it difficult for entrepreneurs to find a place. China’s state-owned enterprises siphoned off most of the available credit from, well, state-owned banks. In India there was more opportunity, but precious few had the financial wherewithal to attract bank financing and startup capital.