Amid continuing uncertainty, geopolitical tensions, and a looming property crash in China that threatens to send shockwaves across the Asia Pacific, the inaugural Fortune Asia Future 30 highlights hot spots of vitality across the region. By applying the vitality measure, which quantifies companies’ long-term growth potential, Fortune teamed up with BCG to spotlight Asian players with high vitality, including the top 20 most vital players from China, and the top 10 from other countries in Asia.

The unranked Asia Future 30 list identifies three key trends driving the innovative potential of the China players: the world’s desire for green technologies, the AI revolution, and the global expansion plans of Chinese-based digital marketplaces and EV manufacturers. Beyond China, hot spots for growth potential are concentrated in South Korea, India, and Japan.

1.Alibaba Health Information Technology

Publicly traded, but majority owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, Alibaba Health offers online pharmaceutical sales, medical diagnoses, and other health care services online. It has filled a niche in China’s health care market, where in-person medical care can be difficult to access.

2.Avenue Supermarts

Avenue Supermarts operates supermarkets in India under the D-mart brand. The company can sell goods at low prices thanks to its B2C model, cutting out the middleman to get goods directly from manufacturers to sell to consumers. Avenue also owns the land underneath its stores, reducing property expenses.

3.Beijing Kingsoft Office Software

Beijing Kingsoft Office develops and operates the WPS (Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheer) series of office software. The company is exploring how to integrate generative AI features into its programs. The company is a subsidiary of Kingsoft, a software development firm with interests in video game development, mobile development and cloud computing.

4. Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy

Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise is one of China's leading vaccine developers, producing China's first HPV vaccine for export markets. The company is also developing nasal vaccines for COVID and other diseases--no needles required! Beijing Wantai is owned by Zhong Shanshan, China's richest man and the founder of bottled water company Nongfu Spring.

5.BYD

BYD, famously backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is arguably China’s biggest EV success story, dethroning U.S. carmaker Tesla as the world’s top seller of battery electric vehicles in the final quarter of 2023. Yet the company’s experience with battery production could be BYD’s secret sauce, giving it higher margins by consolidating its supply chains. The company is now starting to expand overseas.

6.Celltrion

Celltrion is a biotechnology company that focuses on "biosimilars:" biological medical products that are similar to other products on the market, yet cheaper. Celltrion is now trying to expand its business globally, merging with its distribution unit Celltrion Healthcare to better sell its drugs around the world.

7.Contemporary Amperex Technology

CATL, which counts Tesla, BMW, and Nio as its customers, has captured about 35% of the global market. The world’s dominant battery maker for electric vehicles made its debut in 2023 on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s biggest companies by revenue. The company has been diversifying its supply chain, with more of its own factories outside of China, and its product base increasingly includes energy storage for solar and wind power.

8.Delta Electronics (Thailand)

Delta Electronics (Thailand) is a subsidiary of Delta Electronics, a Taiwan-based company that manufactures and distributes electronics. The Thai subsidiary is responsible for two of the group’s most promising segments: Data centers and electric vehicles. At time of writing, Delta Electronics (Thailand) is the Southeast Asian country’s most valuable company.

9.EVE Energy

EVE, headquartered in Huizhou, China, manufactures a wide range of lithium-ion batteries, for products as big as electric SUVs and as small as e-cigarettes. The EV boom has fueled much of that growth, but electric storage systems—the kind that capture energy from solar arrays and wind farms—are now among EVE’s fastest-growing product categories.

10.Hangzhou First Applied Material

Hangzhou First Applied Material is one of the engines of China’s dominance in (and government subsidization of) the solar-power industry. The company holds roughly 50% of the global market for “solar film”—the materials that coat or encase a solar battery and protect it from the elements.

11.Hundsun Technologies

This Chinese fintech company provides a range of services that help other financial firms do business more smoothly, including tech to spot and deter money laundering and an AI-based chatbot that helps users retrieve key data from reports and filings.

12.Imeik Technology Development

Imeik Technology Development focuses on the research, development and production of biomedical materials; the Shenzhen, China-based firm also produces medical devices. Imeik, founded in 2004, is China's top seller of hyaluronic acid dermal filler, a very popular antiaging treatment.

13.JA Solar Technology

JA Solar is part of China's globally-dominant solar industry, helping to make solar cells affordable for the green transition. And it knows how to make money off solar cells: The company has the highest net profit per watt thanks to its cost management.

14.JD Health International

This online seller of pharmaceutical products, medical supplies, and health care services originated as a division of e-commerce giant JD.com, which spun it off in 2019. JD Health’s success reflects the fragmented state of China’s health care system, where medical care can be difficult to obtain outside major cities. The company also operates more than 100 brick-and--mortar pharmacies.

15.Jiangsu Hengli Hydraulic

Jiangsu Hengli Hydraulic produces hydraulic components for heavy machinery, like excavators, agricultural machines and tunnel borers. The company is embarking on expansion plans to Europe and the Americas, snapping up a German pump supplier in the process.

16.Kakao

Kakao is one of Korea's two internet giants, alongside Naver. It runs KakaoTalk, the country's most popular messaging service, as well as a host of other services including games, e-commerce, ride-hailing and fintech. KakaoTalk has 47 million monthly active users, equal to over 90% of Korea's population. The company is also planning to invest more in AI, including long-term bets on generative AI and health care.

17.Lasertec

Lasertec Corporation designs and manufactures inspection and measurement equipment—and is the only company that supplies the inspection systems for extreme ultraviolet lithography, or EUVs. EUV is key to producing the most advanced chips used in the latest devices.

18.Li Auto

Li Auto is one of China's major EV startups, alongside Nio and Xpeng. Founded by Li Xiang in 2015, the Beijing, China-based automaker targets the premium end of the market, competing in price with models from companies like Tesla. Li Auto primarily makes hybrds sports utility vehicles, but released its first battery EV in early 2024.

19.LTI Mindtree

LTIMindtree—formed via the merger in 2022 of the firms L&T Infotech and Mindtree—is now India’s sixth-largest tech consultancy by revenue. It boasts strong client bases in banking and financial services, as well as in tech and media.

20.M3

M3 is Japan's largest medical ifnformation websites provider, providing medical-related services to physicians and other professionals. Itaru Tanimura, a former McKinsey consultant, founded the company in 2000. M3 claims to serve 320,000 physicians in Japan and over 6.5 million worldwide.

21.Meituan

E-commerce company Meituan leads China’s food delivery sector, capturing 70% of the market. Last May, Meituan launched KeeTa in Hong Kong, its first major foray outside mainland China, and is already the city’s second-largest food delivery platform. The company is trying to break into AI, acquiring Light Year, a startup from Meituan founder Wang Huiwen.

22.Naver

Naver is South Korea's most popular search engine, taking 70% of the market, and also has businesses in cloud computing and e-commerce. Naver also owns Line, the major Japanese messaging app, through a joint venture with Softbank. The company acquired both Poshmark, the U.S.-based clothing resale platform, and Wattpad, a platform for user-submitted writing.

23.Nio

Nio designs, manufactures and sells smart electric vehicles, and is banking on a premium brand image, autonomous driving technology and a batter swapping model to help it stand out in China's crowded market. The Shanghai, China-based EV startup, founded in 2014, is backed by CYVN, an Abu Dhabi, UAE investment fund.

24.Posco Future M

South Korean firm Posco Future M, together with its subsidiaries, produces materials for lithium-ion batteries. The Pohang-based company is the only producer of cathode and anode materials in South Korea.

25.Shenzhen Inovance Technology

Shenzhen Inovance Technology is a major provider of circuitry and other components for industrial robots; its products are in particularly high demand in the auto industry. The company has begun diversifying into other robotics—including components for warehouse drones.

26.Sungrow Power Supply

Sungrow, headquartered in Hefei, China, builds and sells equipment for generating and storing solar and wind power. Most notably, it’s the world’s biggest maker of photovoltaic inverters—the devices that convert energy from solar panels into an alternating current that a utility grid can use.

27.Suzhou Maxwell Technologies

Suzhou Maxwell makes the equipment that other companies use to produce "heterojunction"solar cells, longer-lasting and less resource-intensive (but more expensive) than regular solar cells. The Suzhou, China-based company serves a wide array of sectors including consumer electionics, automobiles and and wireless communications.

28.Trip.com Group

Trip.com Group is a leading global travel service provider comprising Trip.com, Ctrip, Skyscanner, and Qunar. Users around the world can use the Shanghai, China-based company's platforms to book a range of services, including accommodation, transport, and package tours.

29.WiseTech Global

WiseTech Global is a developer and provider of software solutions for the global logistics industry. Its customers include all of the 25 largest global freight forwarders. WiseTech’s global customs and compliance system covers more than 70% of global manufactured trade flows after some key acquisitions.

30.WuXi AppTec

Shanghai-based WuXi AppTec focuses on drug discovery, development, and manufacturing. Founded in 2001 as WuXi PharmaTech, the company rebranded to its current name after acquiring the U.S.-based AppTec Laboratory Services in 2008.

The Asia Future 30: Innovators built for growth.

The world's an uncertain place. AI is driving executive FOMO, while high geopolitical tension and war is weighing on leaders' minds. Asia is no exception: While the region has been spared the strong inflation and interest rate hikes seen in the West, economists worry about a property crash in China, which could send a shockwave throughout the region.

Billions of people in Asia hope that the now-decades long increase in living standards continues. While economists forecast GDP growth in the mid-single digits, this is by no means certain to manifest itself. And, given the turmoil, it is even harder to judge which companies are set to drive that growth--making decisions difficult for investors.

To illuminate the matter, Fortune and Boston Consulting Group developed the vitality measure, which quantifies companies’ long-term growth potential. The measure is based on two pillars: A top-down, market-based assessment of a company’s growth potential, and a bottom-up analysis of its capacity to deliver, based on factors like technology, structure, and strategic orientation (read more on our methodology here). This metric underlies the global Future 50 list, which, since its first publication in 2017, has highlighted the most vital, public companies around the world each year.

Complementing our global analysis, we are now creating, for the first time, a regional deep dive: the Asia Future 30. This list chronicles the Asian players with the greatest potential for growth and innovation. We decided to spotlight the top 20 most vital Chinese players in the Asia Future 30 – and to include the top 10 most vital firms from other countries around Asia, highlighting hot spots of growth potential across the region.

So where do we see innovation in Asia? What's driving it? And what are the challenges that must be navigated to turn potential into reality?

China: Strong growth potential – driven by 3 key trends

The Greater China region has long been a stronghold of global growth potential. Thirty percent of the Future 50 firms hail from the region.

A look at the Chinese players among the Asia Future 30 reveals that their innovative potential is driven by three trends:

First, green tech players, in particular, solar panel and battery manufacturers – have a strong presence on the list, thanks to government support in the form of subsidies and ambitious renewable energy targets, access to crucial raw materials, and the world’s desire to decarbonize fast.

Second, early movers on AI are poised for future growth. Software companies like Beijing Kingsoft, Hundsun, and JD Health are already rolling out generative AI-based solutions to unlock new revenue sources. And it's not just digital companies: EV makers like Li Auto and NIO are aggressively investing into advanced driver-assistance systems.

Third, the Chinese companies on the list have global ambitions. Now the world’s largest EV manufacturer, BYD still sells 90% of its cars in China – but is investing heavily to change this. And PDD Holdings--not on the Asia Future 30 due to its Dublin headquarters, but a Chinese-born firm nevertheless--is reported to have spent more than $3 bn on online customer acquisition in the U.S. alone for its new marketplace Temu.

But there are significant risks for Chinese players--and lawmakers--to navigate. The property crisis still threatens to dampen consumption and drag down key sectors of the economy.

Finally, the United Nations projects that China will be the oldest country in the world before the year 2100 – and its population decline has already begun. As the labor force shrinks, both China's government and private sector will face the hard task of creating a flourishing aging society.

Beyond China: Hot spots of growth around Asia

The Asia Future 30 list includes ten companies outside of China. Four of them are located in South Korea, hailing from the industrial and communication services sectors. They include Posco, a manufacturer of battery components, as well as tch giants Naver and Kakao--which are expanding their portfolios to more lucrative areas like livestreaming, advertising and fintech.

Korean companies are capitalizing on the country's growing middle-class and rapid experimental product development. The country is responsible for numerous global trends, like K-pop and K-Beauty.

India and Japan both send two companies each to the Asia Future 30, reflecting the latent potential in both these economies to innovate.

Yet all Asian countries face the same risk: They all depend, to some extent, on a strong Chinese economy. Individual economies also face unique challenges: Japan and South Korea already have some of the oldest populations in the world. India, on the other hand, needs to preserve stability as it rapidly grows--as well as continually re-skill a vast population as it looks to ascend the economic value chain through export-led growth.

Outlook

A retrospective analysis shows that the companies on the Asia Future 30 list significantly outperformed their peers on revenue growth. These players achieved an average compound annual growth rate of 51% on revenue from H1/2020 to H1/2023, whereas the 500 largest firms on the S&P Pan Asia BMI achieved 6% growth on average. Past performance is no guarantee of future success--yet Asia Future 30 firms are positioned for value-creating growth.

If Asia Future 30 companies want to keep their impressive momentum, they need to make sure they stay at the forefront of new technologies. And governments play a role too, in helping these companies navigate significant macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds.

After all, new companies are always on the rise. The Asia Future 30 companies focuses on public firms, but excitement is also brewing in the IPO market, with big names set to go public in 2024: fast fashion platform Shein, logistics network Cainiao, and EV scooter firm Ola Electric. They may shake up next year's edition of the Asia Future 30.

To identify the Asia Future 30, the BCG Henderson Institute examined around 700 publicly traded companies across the Asia-Pacific region with at least $10 billion in market value at year-end 2022, or $10 billion in revenue through 2022.

Companies were assessed on their market potential—defined as expected future growth as determined by financial markets. This was assessed by calculating the proportion of their market value that is not attributable to the earnings stream from their existing business model.

We also considered a company’s capacity to deliver against this potential based on 19 factors, weighted by a machine learning algorithm for their ability to predict growth over the following five years. These fall into four categories:

Strategy

Our A.I. algorithm relies on natural language processing to detect a company’s strategic orientation from its annual reports. We also assess a company’s commitment to sustainability from its governance rating by Arabesque, a data-analytics firm.

Technology and investments

A company’s capital expenditures and R&D (as a percentage of sales) measure its investment in the future. Technology advantage is assessed through the growth in a company’s citation-weighted patent portfolio and that portfolio’s digital intensity (share in computing and electronic communication). To account for external innovation, a company’s portfolio of start-up investments and acquisitions is compared with best-performing global venture capital funds.

People

The value of youthful and focused leadership is assessed by the age and stability of a company’s executives and directors and the size of its board. The company’s diversity is assessed by its share of employees and of management that is female, as well as the geographic backgrounds of its directors.

Structure

A company’s age and (revenue-based) size are correlated with vitality loss. But three-year and six-month sales growth are predictive of future growth as signs of revitalization.

Companies with negative cash flow from operations over the prior three years on average, indicating elevated performance risk, were excluded from this list.