In addition to its claims as the largest and most populous continent in the world, Asia also houses some of the world's top superpowers — including four of the top five militaries and seven of the 10 fastest growing economies.
The continent's growing influence on the world stage has similarly elevated the clout of its top political and business leaders. Business Insider recently ranked the 50 most powerful people in the world, and 15 hailed from Asia.
To compile the ranking, we considered more than 100 of the most influential players in business, politics, entertainment, and tech, judging their influence by economic power, command, newsworthiness, and impact — a subjective measure that captures how important they are in their respective spheres (see our full methodology here).
Here are the 15 most powerful people in Asia.
Editing by Alex Morrell; additional research by Andy Kiersz.
SEE ALSO: The 50 most powerful people in the world
15. Mukesh Ambani
Title: Chairman, managing director of Reliance Industries
Country: India
Age: 58
Mukesh Ambani took over as the chairman of Reliance Industries when his father, the company's founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, died in 2002. The enormous industrial conglomerate generates $61 billion in annual sales from its interests in energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail, and, more recently, telecommunications.
Ambani is the richest person in India with a personal fortune of over $23 billion. He owns a 27-story Mumbai mansion that cost $1 billion to build.
And if Ambani's projections for India's economy prove correct, expect that net worth to soar. Four years ago, Ambani predicted that India would grow from a $1.4 trillion economy in 2011 to a $30 trillion economy by 2030 — a bullish estimate considering that India's GDP today stands at $2.2 trillion.
14. Benjamin Netanyahu
Title: Israeli prime minister
Country: Israel
Age: 66
Reelected this year as the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu recently compared the Middle East to "Game of Thrones." It isn't a game he's always played well — disputes over the Iran deal and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have left US-Israeli relations at a crisis point. But Israel has remained relatively stable during a time of turmoil throughout the Middle East, and Netanyahu has dominated his country's politics like few Israeli leaders.
Overall, many say that Netanyahu has done a good job of boosting Israel's economy and putting the country at the forefront of technological and medical advances. Even so, the fallout over the Iran nuclear deal, and his strained relations with Washington, don't fare well for his legacy.
13. Robin Li
Title: Baidu CEO
Country: China
Age: 46
There's a trio of internet kings in China, collectively known as "BAT"— Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent. For his part, Robin Li commands the market in internet search as the chairman and CEO of Baidu, China's Google equivalent.
As with Google, Li's Baidu is constantly investing in the future. In May, Baidu announced a partnership with Daimler, the maker of Chinese Mercedes-Benz, to provide software for their cars that allows drivers to access content from their smartphones. And in conjunction with BMW, Baidu is building a self-driving car prototype that it hopes to reveal by year-end.
Li, whose net worth is upwards of $11 billion, also said this year that his company would invest $3.2 billion in "online to offline" services, which allow mobile users to perform traditionally non-digital tasks such as buying movie tickets, hailing cabs, and finding deals at restaurants.
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