Asia-Pacific digital innovation companies will pose a threat to global companies

According to Gartner, although top digital innovation companies in the Asia-Pacific region represent both a threat and an opportunity for global companies, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are not paying close attention to these companies.

Analysts advised that CIOs looking to build and expand digital businesses should identify these top innovative companies in the Asia-Pacific region as early as possible and, through discussions with their strategy teams, decide whether to collaborate with or compete against these digital giants.

Gartner predicted that 80% of today's companies will lose about 10% of their market share by 2021 by falling behind in the competition for innovation or failing to innovate on their own.

Gartner analyst CK Lu stated, “CIOs and IT leaders at global companies are well aware of many U.S. IT firms such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, but they are often unaware of how Asian IT powerhouses are changing the digital business landscape.”

Lu stated, “Without a thorough investigation of digital innovation companies in the Asia-Pacific region within a clear classification of opportunities, the priorities for global IT investment will be incomplete,” adding, “The GDP growth rate of the Asia-Pacific region is 1.6 times faster than the global market. Furthermore, it is a market with a very high adoption rate of new technologies such as mobile wallets and access to 1.7 billion internet users.” "As Chinese and U.S. digital companies engage in fierce competition for global market innovation, many companies must remain vigilant to avoid falling behind," he said.

A digital innovation company refers to a company that literally creates and leads digital innovation. Gartner defines a digital innovation company as "any entity that influences behavioral changes or changes in fundamental expectations expressed or triggered through digital capabilities, channels, and assets within cultures, markets, industries, and processes."

Gartner selected the top 10 digital innovation companies in the Asia-Pacific region as follows (see Table 1). This was done by considering the influence of each company's four major innovation factors (technology, business, industry, and society), while also assessing three factors (company size, business expansion trend, and business scale) based on them.

"Digital innovation companies in the Asia-Pacific region are thriving, securing unique vested interests within the region's digital business ecosystem. CIOs and IT leaders must ask themselves whether these are the right companies to collaborate with or compete against. The days of taking them lightly are over," Lu said.