China’s Alibaba Surpasses IBM and Files the Most Blockchain Related Patent Applications

Cryptocurrency-related technologies, especially blockchain, have the potential to significantly change the relationship between things and the financial markets or the internet. Many countries are researching the development of blockchain-related technology, but among these countries, China has a great influence.

Among the Chinese companies, Alibaba Group, which runs Alibaba, one of the world’s largest EC sites like Amazon, and also manages Alipay, its own settlement service with more than 500 million users, stands out.

According to an investigative report in the Nikkei Asia Review, it was revealed that Alibaba Corporation accounted for about 10% of the blockchain related patents that were registered in 2017.

According to IPR Daily’s report, the Alibaba Group applied for 90 patents in 2018, exceeding IBM in the United States, and currently ranks number one in patent applications.

| China Approaching the United States in Blockchain-related Patents

Although the U.S. leads in terms of total number of blockchain-related patents, China has embarked on developing and researching blockchain technology on a national scale in recent years, and is closing in on the U.S.

Though China was always extremely strict on cryptocurrency and ICO that use cryptocurrency to acquire funds, the situation is different for blockchain, which is the central underlying technology.

On May 28, 2018, President Xi Jinping said blockchain will renew the ways of the existing economy and announced that research will be conducted on a national scale.

| Alibaba Begins New Project in China using Blockchain

Under these circumstances, Alibaba Corporation is actively working. In 2017, Alibaba Company formulated a project using blockchain to eradicate the constant mislabeling of food. Since April 2018, it partnered with the New Zealand and Australia branches of the major U.K.-based accounting and advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and began a pilot program there.

In addition to this project, according to an August 28, 2018 report in China’s local media “tech.huanqiu.com,” Wuchang City in Heilongjiang Province, known for its quality rice production, entered a blockchain-based partnership with “Ant Financial” of the Alibaba Group, which manages the Alipay payment platform. It started a project to prevent the mislabeling of food and to guarantee the quality of food for consumers by using blockchain.

The project leverages IoT and blockchain solutions. It plans to sell all the rice produced in Wuchang City on Alibaba’s BtoC EC site “Tmall.”

Tmall already has a supply chain that allows consumers to see information such as food production information via QR code. It appears that one major purpose of this project is to save farmers in Wuchang City who are being affected by the mislabeling of food.

Alibaba has simultaneously launched new projects in the field of healthcare, aside from that in Wuchang City. It would be wise to keep an eye out for future developments.