The global balance of power in the IT industry is shifting from West to East, with Asian companies emerging on the world stage. Andy McCue looks at how this trend played out on the Agenda Setters list.

In years gone by, the Agenda Setters list was dominated by the movers and shakers in Silicon Valley, with a smattering of names from the rest of the world making up the remainder. But over the last couple of years that has changed, with companies from China, India and other Asian nations comprising a prominent contingent.

The big trend on this year's list is the high ranking of Asian companies expanding out of their homegrown territories and making their own mark on the tech industry as legitimate global players in their own right.

Chinese company Huawei is probably the best example of this with CEO Ren Zhengfei making his second consecutive appearance on the list, this year at number 25 - ironically one place above John Chambers, CEO at rival Cisco.

Huawei continues to expand outside of its domestic market, setting up research and development and marketing operations in the UK and hiring all over the world, including Africa and Latin America - much to the annoyance of the established Western players.

Clive Longbottom, analyst at Quocirca and Agenda Setters panellist said: "The thing about Huawei is that it has come into the Western world with its own name - not as a partner or being bought up by someone."

Another Chinese success story is Alibaba, the internet trading and search company, of which Yahoo! owns 40 per cent. Alibaba's CEO Jack Ma is a first-time entry at number 11 on the Agenda Setters list this year, and his aim is to make the company bigger than eBay and Google.

Benjamin Schmittzehe, consultant, China expert and Agenda Setters panellist, said that while Alibaba was initially about trading within China it is now a global phenomenon.

He said: "Now you've got that platform, you have people in Turkey trading with people in the UK who are trading with people in Russia - forget China. China is just the country that got it started. The next thing is introducing things like VoIP."

The next-generation comes in second place on the Agenda Setters list, and it is Chinese, Japanese and Korean youth culture that is driving much of the interest in online activities for this group - such as online social networking and virtual worlds, which are now big business as people buy and sell in the virtual world using real-world cash as the banks get involved.

Online multiplayer gaming has also taken off big time in China and Korea and is now the largest market in the world - to the extent that worried governments have tried to restrict the amount of time people spend on their computers playing the games.

Schmittzehe said: "There is starting to be a lot of impact on everyday youth culture from Asia because that's where a lot of the technology originates."

But it's not just about China. The Indian IT companies are also continuing to set the agenda as they increasingly become global players in the services market.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the biggest IT company to come out of India and its CEO S Ramadorai again makes it onto the Agenda Setters list at number 22. Meanwhile Nandan Nilekani, CEO at rival Infosys debuts at number 40.

Ramadorai in particular was singled out by the Agenda Setters panel for the way he is lifting TCS out of the offshore outsourcing niche and challenging established Western IT services companies in their own backyards.

Quocirca's Longbottom said: "TCS can't compete by being an Indian offshoring company but it can start to compete by being a global systems integrator and trusted partner so Ramadorai's opening up offices worldwide, and he's hiring local people worldwide. He's turning TCS from being an Indian company into a world company - and he's doing such a good job of it."

Globalisation is continuing to reshape the technology landscape and, as this year's Agenda Setters list shows, it is the Asian companies which are the key players in that transformation.