So I’ve compiled my list of the best startups that were launched (either in private or public beta) between January to December 2010.

Some of these startups have been on my radar and although I’m not sure which one of them is my favourite startup in 2010, they’ll probably be on my list of startups to watch in 2011.

Without much ado, here are the best startups that launched in 2010.

[Note: This is my list of the best startups that launched in 2010. Please feel free to point me to any startup that you think should or shouldn't be on the list].

In no particular order:

YarnPad – a Twitter-clone launched in May 2010 by Deji Kadri and Victor Sylva. YarnPad.com (still in public beta) is a real-time information network that let’s you share and discuss what’s hapenning now – wetin people dey ‘yarn’ about.

Lotaar – a social television and radio guide launched in July 2010 by Oo Nwoye and Roland Okor. Lotaar.com (still in public beta) is built to remind you when your favourite TV and radio programmes are about to start, so you can tune in.

Sowambe – a pan-African social media lifestyle brand co-founded by Loy Okezie and Francis Oghuma. Sowambe.com (still in private beta) showcases social media adopters and tracks trends in social media with insights and analysis into the emerging social media industry.

Yrn.me – a URL shortener launched in February 2010 by Ahmad Mukoshy. The 5-lettered domain name better spoken as “Yarn Me” (Nigerian slang word for “tell me”) can shorten up to 2,000 characters length of web addresses to merely 20 characters just like bit.ly

Identified – a social recruiting tool co-founded by Adeyemi Ajao. Identified.com takes your professional data across the social web and compounds it into a simple, yet robust career-building experience.

Mysifty – a social media feeds prioritizer launched in December 2010 by Jacob Ajayi. Mysifty.com let’s you prioritize your social media life so that you can choose priority friends and brands to follow on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Netaviva – a web-based  application that provides business/social networking tools founded in June 2010 by Stanley Ojadovwa. Netaviva.com connects professionals, investors, and entrepreneurs in African with their projects, ideas or business proposals.

DokitaSAYS – is a Q&A service for health-related issues founded by Tosin Oguntuase in May 2010. DokitaSAYS.com allows you to ask health-related questions and get answers from real doctors.

Yarnable – a micro-discussion site launched in May 2010 by Ahmad Mukoshy allows you create and share short topics of interest in under 140 characters. Yarnable.com is a handy tool for your real time status updates answering the one simple question “What is happening”?

Nwalla – was launched as a Gowalla-like location based service to help people discover and share “the next best thing” in their area – eateries, hair stylists, malls, shopping centers, cinemas or just about any place they’ve visited. Today, Nwalla.com has a classifieds site that allow people buy and sell their stuffs.

What to expect in 2011

Most of the startups we saw in 2010 were clones (with a bit of innovation) of global startups.

The only ‘somewhat’ original ideas we saw were from startups like Lotaar, Identified and Mysifty.

My expectation for startups in 2011 would be an idea that creates value, addresses a need or solves a local problem.

What’s the point creating a service that only you and your friends get to use, when there are probably over 60 million Nigerians online today.

In 2011, technology entrepreneurs should focus on developing mobile web solutions and mobile apps for the over 85 million mobile subscribers in Nigeria.

Interestingly, there are some cool mobile ad revenue models that are waiting to be tapped.

Remember, the future is mobile…the future is now.

[Note: This is my list of the best startups that launched in 2010. Please feel free to point me to any startup that you think should or shouldn't be on the list].

In this post, I’ll be sharing the top 10 posts that were mostly viewed for the month of May 2010. Most of these posts were written and published in May, except for two published in March/April 2010 and one in July 2009.

10. Barcamp Africa Cancelled. Tech4Africa still in the horizon”

9. DokitaSays – Ask Real Health Questions. Answers By Real Doctors

8. TXTOWEB – Nigeria’s Most Innovative Classified Ads Platform

7. Yarnable Goes Into Private Beta (Invites)

6. Slide: Digital Sense Forum 2010

5. The Encipher Tablet: starting at N55,000 ($399)

4. Encipher Set To Unveil Android Powered Tablet

3. 10 Nigerian Dotcom Start-ups That Are Dotgone

2. How to Turn Online Forums Into Social Media Communities

1. Exclusive: Screenshots and Photos of the Encipher Tablet

With so much attention on the Nigerian technology space, I’ll continue to track trends within the eco-system. If you have not yet subscribed to the blog’s feed, you can do so here.

If you have a product or service to advertise, you can read the top 5 reasons why you should advertise on this blog.

I am very excited to announce the official launch of the new Startups Nigeria platform (SN 2.0), built on an open source software and developed by a UK-based software development and management company, Encipher, our official technology partner.

Update (January 04, 2010): Read the official press release here.

From Version 1.0 to Version 2.0

Back in April 2008, I founded Startups Nigeria (SN 1.0) as a startups and technology news blog. The blog eventually became very popular, influential and highly respected within the Nigerian and African technology and social media space.

In fact, TechCrunch almost acquired the blog, but instead we decided to build a CrunchBase-like platform (soon to be launched), so as to have an updated (crowd-sourced) database of start-ups from Nigeria.

With this launch, Startups Nigeria has re-branded into a technology + startups + social media community with a new and official homepage found at www.startupsnigeria.org, with several social media pages found on Twitter, Facebook, Afrigator, Digg, Sturvs, YouNoodle, CrunchBase, Delicious,  StumbleUpon, Technorati, TakingITGlobal, NaijaPulse, FriendFeed, Flickr, Google, YouTube and VC4Africa amongst others.

What is Startups Nigeria 2.0?

Startups Nigeria 2.0 is a youth-driven, online community for technology enthusiasts, internet start-ups, companies, entrepreneurs, investors and students, all pioneering innovations in Nigeria’s emerging start-up industry and social media space.

With the new Startups Nigeria platform (currently on beta), users can create their personal profile, add and promote their start-ups, share their start-up stories, photos, videos, follow other start-ups, find ideal start-up partners, find technology-related jobs, find entrepreneurs and investors and lots more.

What’s the Future?

The idea of the platform is to help build Nigeria’s emerging dot-com start-ups industry and contribute towards a knowledge-based economy in Nigeria by the year 2020.

In the future, we hope to become a technology and start-ups incubator and help fund financially viable start-ups from Nigeria and African entrepreneurs. If you would like to collaborate or partner with us, kindly send us an email via partner@startupsnigeria.org

If you would like to work with Startups Nigeria either as writer, editor, researcher, community manager, developer or designer, kindly send us an email via jobs@startupsnigeria.org

What is Private Beta?

We are currently in private beta and will be launching the platform soonest! Private beta is a period when we test the site’s functionality for bugs, errors, etc and listen to user feedback and suggestions.

If you would like to be considered for a beta test invite or to be notified of when the website is ready for the general public, kindly follow this link.

Get ready for the “Startups Revolution” in Nigeria!

Unfortunately, if you ask me how many start-ups I’ve reviewed, profiled or mentioned and/or the number of startups that launched between 2008 and 2009, I’d likely give an off the cuff figure.

Call that unprofessional, if you like, but isn’t record-keeping a huge problem in Nigeria? Lol. Well, my hope is for the emerging startup industry (dotcom industry, if you like) in Nigeria, to have an effective and reliable database record of startup activities in Nigeria starting from 2010.

Interestingly, I’ve decided to create the Startups Nigeria Report (SNR), a quarterly report that will x-ray (with statistical data) the activities of startup companies across a variety of technology sectors: consumer media and entertainment, social networking, mobile communications, advertising and ecommerce within Nigeria’s emerging start-up industry.

This report which will cover trends in start-up foundings, product features, financings (if possible) will attract industry experts, CEOs, technology enthusiasts, software developers, telecoms operators, investors, entrepreneurs and students as well as those interested in Nigeria’s web industry.

If you would like your startup to be included in the Startups Nigeria Report (SNR) to be released in Q1 2010, kindly complete this form.

If you would like to advertise your business, product or service to the business, technology and startups community in Nigeria via the Startups Nigeria Report (SNR), you can contact me via loy.okezie (at) gmail.com

The Startups Nigeria Report will be available for download in PDF format as well as in print.

Update: The deadline for submission of start-ups is December 31, 2009.

If you have been wondering what the term ‘nigeria 2.0′ (coined by Francis Oghuma) is, let me announce to you that Startups Nigeria in collaboration with Qubestreet has just released the screenshot and logo of Nigeria’s Social Media and Web 2.0 Events Platform at www.nigeria20.com

Nigeria20.com is an events platform that will showcase conferences and workshops in Nigeria on Web 2.0, Mobile 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Startups 2.0, Advertising 2.0, News 2.0, Game 2.0, Radio 2.0 as well as Social Media Awards that recognizes the best web talents within Nigeria’s Web Industry.

Over the last few years, the Nigerian web industry has been generating a lot of buzz on the new media space and we think it’s high time to launch a platform that would bring web entrepreneurs, social media players
as well as web 2.0 experts around the world together in order to showcase and celebrate Nigeria’s technological innovations in the new media space.

We are modelling global web events such as TechCrunch50, the Crunchies, FOWA, FOWD, FOOA, FOM, TED Conferences, Mashable Open Web Awards, amongst others.

We are currently looking for collaborations, partnerships and sponsorships in order to make these events successful. We will be posting updates via the events platform blog, Twitter and Facebook.

Kindly send your questions, suggestions and feedback to info@nigeria20.com

Let me be very clear:

“I am not interested in engaging with such slanderous attacks which I’ve described as a ‘last-minute corporate fire-fighting that does nobody any good‘.

I strongly believe that responding to such petty and lame attacks will be counter-productive to my strategic efforts towards re-building  Startups Nigeria – a brand which I founded since April 2008.”

If you are interested in the Startups Nigeria story, please continue reading…