BYD, the Chinese manufacturer of cars, batteries, electronics, and solar power equipment, has earned the No 1 spot on Bloomberg Businessweek's annual Tech 100 ranking of tech's top performing companies, outperforming the tech outfit manufacturer Apple (No 2).

 
Apple and Tencent Holdings (No 3) rounded out the top three. Last year's champion, Amazon.com, dropped three places to No 4 and Tata Consultancy jumped from No 30 last year to land the No 5 spot.

Chinese mainland and India are emerging with a number of companies on the list, alongside traditional technology powerhouses Japan and Taiwan, but US companies dominate the list of the world's best performing tech companies.

Global powerhouses Tata Consultancy (No 5) and Google (No 22) are listed in the Tech 100 with lesser known Taiwan chipmaker Phison Electronics (No 65) and Brazilian E-tailer B2W (No 96).

The Tech 100 list was compiled by Bloomberg Businessweek from a selection of 6,500 tech companies with certain set requirements: a minimum market cap of $1 billion, revenues of at least $500 million, and no more than a 5 percent decline in revenue (in local currency) from 2008 to 2009. Revenues and operating income were then normalized to compare the remaining 210 companies, which were then ranked based on these metrics as well as shareholder returns and employee growth.