China Blockchain Enterprise Development Census Report: About 1,000 businesses that have actually conducted business

Author: Jiang Zero One think tank, according to Health

Source: 01 Blockchain

This report was jointly issued by Null Think Tank and Digital Asset Research Institute

▪ According to incomplete statistics of the Zero One Think Tank, as of the end of October 2019, there were a total of 31,172 companies across the country with the words "blockchain" in their names / former names, business scope or product information (names). However, after further statistical screening of the data, we found that as of October 2019, there are about 1,000 companies that have actually conducted blockchain business or focused on blockchain business in China, of which two batches of blockchain have been conducted through Internet letter Nearly 400 companies have filed information services.

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▪ The number of Chinese blockchain companies has concentrated after 2017, and may benefit from: the gradual improvement of blockchain technology and the maturity of the market ecology; the enthusiasm of the cryptocurrency market attracts many early participants; the entry of traditional Internet giants and the regular army, Deepened the social acceptance of blockchain; and policy support for blockchain technology.

▪ The agglomeration effect of the blockchain industry is beginning to appear. Guangdong Province has become the main position for the registration of China's blockchain-related enterprises, and the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and Shaanxi, Hunan and Chongqing are becoming the main gathering areas for China's blockchain enterprises.

▪ At present, China's blockchain companies are mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, with registered capital generally in the millions and tens of millions. The number of companies with a registered capital of over 100 million is close to 1,000, accounting for only 3.27%.

▪ At present, China's blockchain companies are mainly based on the development of blockchain technology, and there are relatively few service companies such as research, consulting and investment. There are about 250 companies that directly mention "digital currency" in their business scope. In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the white paper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System", which first proposed the concept of Bitcoin, and since then Bitcoin has gradually entered people's horizons. At the same time, as the underlying technology that supports Bitcoin, blockchain has also started to attract widespread attention.

Entering 2019, the blockchain industry continues to be hot, and more and more companies and institutions choose to join this wave.

On October 24, 2019, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China conducted the eighteenth collective study on the current status and trends of blockchain technology development. The General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping emphasized during the study that the integrated application of blockchain technology played an important role in new technological innovation and industrial transformation. We must regard blockchain as an important breakthrough in independent innovation of core technologies, clarify the main attack direction, increase investment, focus on overcoming a number of key core technologies, and accelerate the development of blockchain technology and industrial innovation.

The development of the blockchain industry in China has ushered in new opportunities. According to incomplete statistics of the Zero One Think Tank, as of the end of October 2019, there were 31172 companies in the country with the words "blockchain" in their names / former names, business scope or product information (name). This report analyzes more than 30,000 blockchain companies from the dimensions of time, registered capital, industry distribution, operating status, regional distribution, and legal representatives.

I. Blockchain companies have concentrated after 2017, and surged in 2018

Figure 1: Chart of the number of Chinese blockchain companies

Source: Zero One Think Tank

Figure 2: Proportion of the number of new blockchain companies in each year

Source: Zero One Think Tank

From the data point of view, the current blockchain-related companies in the market are concentrated after 2017.

Blockchain technology accompanied the official launch of Bitcoin in 2009. But before 2015, although the concept of blockchain was gradually recognized by the market, most companies were on the sidelines of this new technology. Lack of sufficient judgment on the value of the blockchain makes relatively few companies truly involved in the practice of the blockchain.

In 2016, the number of blockchain companies doubled compared to 2015. This has nothing to do with the market recognition of Ethereum technology and the beginning to attract a large number of developers outside the blockchain world.

As a representative of the 1.0 stage of the blockchain. Bitcoin's original expectation was to become a free-flowing peer-to-peer electronic cash system. However, due to factors such as sharp price fluctuations, insufficient transaction performance, and excessive energy consumption, Bitcoin has not fully realized its original vision. It wasn't until Ethereum went online and widely recognized that the development of the blockchain entered the 2.0 stage of greater scalability and practicability. Supporting script language application development and smart contract implementation makes more enterprises' practice on the blockchain more realistic and convenient, and promotes the application exploration of the blockchain in various scenarios.

Figure 3: The monthly trend of the number of Chinese blockchain companies (2017.1-2019.9)

Source: Zero One Think Tank

In 2017, the number of blockchain companies began to surge, and China added 4,195 new blockchain-related companies throughout the year. This year, the value of blockchain technology has gradually been valued by enterprises and institutions. In early 2017, the Ethereum Alliance was established by more than 20 of the world's top financial institutions and technology companies, such as JP Morgan, the Chicago Board of Trade Group, New York Mellon Bank, Thomson Reuters, Microsoft, Intel, and Accenture.

At the same time, with the widespread application of Ethereum technology, new types of financing methods such as ICO and STO have been spawned, and the entire cryptocurrency market has seen unprecedented growth. In December 2017 alone, the amount of ICO financing reached $ 1.8 billion in a single month. The hot market has also attracted more and more people and businesses to this area.

In 2018, the number of blockchain companies blew up again compared to 2017, and the number of new blockchain companies that year accounted for 48% of the total market. In June 2018, the number of new blockchain companies in a single month peaked at 1,870.

In the first 10 months of 2019, there were 8895 new blockchain-related companies in the Chinese market, accounting for 29%. However, compared with the same period in 2018, there has been a decline to a certain extent, which has decreased by about 40% year-on-year.

In addition, the business scope of nearly 300 companies that were incorporated before 2009 also includes the blockchain business, and the blockchain technology only officially came out in 2009. This may be because these companies modified their business scope at some point after 2009 and added blockchain-related businesses.

The number of Chinese blockchain-related enterprises has concentrated after 2017 and may benefit from the following factors:

First, the blockchain technology is gradually improving and the market system is becoming increasingly mature. From blockchain 1.0, represented by Bitcoin, to blockchain 2.0, represented by the Ethereum network, to blockchain 3.0, which is still in the early stages of development and empowers the real economy, the blockchain is improving scalability. While waiting for its own performance, it is also continuously integrated into the use scenario, and has been practically applied in many fields such as supply chain finance, food traceability, digital certificate, and e-government. After more than ten years of development, China has basically formed seven major industry developments including basic technology facilities & technology solutions, digital asset related, financial application scenarios, physical application scenarios, other on-chain applications, industry services, and others. system.

Figure 4: Development map of China's blockchain industry

Source: Zero One Think Tank

Second, the popularity of the cryptocurrency market has attracted many early players. Although the reputation of encrypted digital currencies in the public is not good, China's central bank and other regulatory authorities have clearly stated that digital currency ICOs are banned. Many companies are eager to try, attracting a large number of institutions, capital and entrepreneurs to enter the blockchain field.

More importantly, another financial world derived from the blockchain is improving and expanding rapidly, especially after the DeFi concept boom in early 2019. Almost all kinds of financial derivatives in the traditional financial market can find corresponding mapping in the virtual world constructed by the blockchain.

In addition, more and more traditional giant companies are deploying blockchain technology, which has increased the awareness and acceptance of blockchain in the society to a certain extent. In China, many large enterprises, including Ali, Tencent, Huawei, and Baidu, have made many attempts in the early stages of blockchain development and have achieved certain results.

Of course, policy support for blockchain technology is also an important reason for the surge in the number of blockchain companies. Since 2016, China has always been encouraging the development of blockchain technology. Governments at all levels have also promulgated many policies to accelerate the development of the blockchain industry, supporting them from various aspects such as funding, technological innovation, and personnel training. (For details, please refer to "China Blockchain Park Census Report")

2. Industrial agglomeration effect is beginning to appear, Beijing misses the top ten cities

In recent years, the industrial agglomeration effect of China's blockchain companies has begun to appear.

1.Guangdong became the main position for the registration of blockchain-related companies in China

According to incomplete statistics of the Zero One Think Tank, as of October 2019, the number of blockchain-related enterprises in Guangdong reached 18922, far ahead of other provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, accounting for more than 60% of the total number of blockchain-related enterprises in the country.

Zhejiang and Shandong are located in the second echelon. They are the only regions except Guangdong with more than 1,000 blockchain companies.

Hainan, Anhui, Hunan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, and Chongqing are ranked four to nine, with more than 500 blockchain companies in their locations.

The emergence of this distribution pattern of blockchain enterprises is closely related to factors such as the policy attitude of various regions towards the blockchain and the difficulty of the business sector in modifying the business scope. According to incomplete statistics, as of the first half of 2019, a total of 23 provincial administrative regions across the country have issued 106 policies related to blockchain support. Guangdong Province is the province with the most blockchain-related policy plans in China, especially Guangzhou and Shenzhen has the most policies.

2.The Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and Shaanxi, Hunan and Chongqing have become the main gathering areas

Judging from the regional situation, the industrial agglomeration effect of the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, and Shaanxi, Hunan and Chongqing areas has begun to appear.

The Pearl River Delta region, represented by Guangdong and Hainan, has become the largest gathering area of ​​China's blockchain industry due to strong policy support, a strong atmosphere of innovation and entrepreneurship, coupled with unique geographical advantages and industrial foundation.

In the Yangtze River Delta region, mainly in Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangsu, with the opportunity of rapid economic development, it has rapidly accumulated strong technology and capital, and gathered a group of well-known domestic blockchain companies, including Jianan Yunzhi and FunChain. Become another important gathering area of ​​China's blockchain industry.

With the help of the spring breeze of policy, Shaanxi, Hunan and Chongqing have strongly encouraged the development of financial technology industries such as blockchain. Geographically, it is adjacent to the Yangtze River Delta to the east, the Pearl River Delta to the south, and the northwest region with abundant power resources. It has a huge development potential and has become another area in China Blockchain industry gathering area.

The northwestern regions of Ningxia, Qinghai, and Tibet, although rich in resources, are limited by factors such as politics, economy, talent, innovation environment and geographical environment, and have fallen behind the national average in the number of blockchain companies.

Figure 5: Regional distribution of Chinese blockchain companies

Source: Zero One Think Tank

3. Three cities in Guangdong entered the top ten, and Beijing lost to Dongguan

From the perspective of city distribution, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Dongguan, which are under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province, rank among the top 10 cities in the country for the number of blockchain companies in the country, ranking first, second, and tenth respectively. Among them, Guangzhou City is a must, and it exceeds the total number of blockchain companies in the second to tenth cities.

With 1,189 blockchain companies in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, it has become the third largest number of blockchain companies in the country. It has also become the only prefecture-level city with the number of blockchain companies exceeding one thousand, in addition to Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong Province.

Hefei, Anhui, Changsha, Hunan, Xi'an, Shaanxi, Haikou, Hainan, and Qingdao, Shandong ranked four to eight. Chongqing became the only municipality to be selected as one of the top ten blockchain companies.

Beijing lost to Dongguan with a slight gap and missed the top ten.

Figure 6: Top 10 cities in the number of Chinese blockchain companies

Source: Zero One Think Tank

Third, the registered capital is mainly in the millions and tens of millions, only 73 companies with more than 1 billion

At present, China's blockchain-related enterprises are mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, and their registered capital is generally in the millions and tens of millions.

Figure 7: Distribution of registered capital of Chinese blockchain companies

Source: Zero One Think Tank

Specifically, there are about 3,200 companies with registered capital between 0 and 1 million, accounting for 10.47%. Among them, there are a total of 7 companies with a registered capital of less than 10,000 yuan and 9 enterprises with a registered capital of less than one million yuan. Guangdong Guigu Technology Co., Ltd. has the lowest registered capital, only RMB 1 yuan.

The number of companies in the range of 1 million to 50 million is the largest, accounting for nearly 80%, of which 32.61% are companies with registered capital of 1 million to 5 million, and 28.18% are between 10 million and 50 million.

The number of companies with a registered capital of over 100 million is close to 1,000, accounting for only 3.27%. The number of companies with more than 1 billion yuan was only 73. Among them, Yukutong Co., Ltd., which was established in December 2017, has the highest registered capital, reaching 89,376.92 million yuan, and its business scope involves the development and application of blockchain technology, blockchain services and other fields.

Table 1: Registered capital of companies that include "blockchain" in the business scope top10

Source: Zero One Think Tank

4. More than 3,400 people have at least two blockchain companies, and one person has a maximum of 28 companies.

According to incomplete statistics from Zero One Think Tank, there are more than 3,400 people in the country with at least two blockchain-related companies, nearly 50 people have at least 10 blockchain companies, and three have more than 20 blockchain companies.

Among them, Yao Yongxing owns 28 blockchain companies and is the individual with the most blockchain companies. Relevant data shows that there are 47 enterprises in which Yao Yongxing acts as a legal person, of which 28 are involved in blockchain in the business scope. These blockchain-related enterprises were basically established in the first quarter of 2019.The registered locations are all in Guangdong Province. The registered capital is mainly 5 million, and the major industry operations are mainly leasing and business services and the financial industry.

No. 2 Yao Meilan owns 26 blockchain companies. However, according to company investigation data, Yao Meilan and Yao Yongxing have many affiliated companies, among which these blockchain-related companies are involved.

Figure 8: Top10 legal representative with the number of blockchain companies

Source: Zero One Think Tank

Note: Zero One Think Tank has removed some cases with apparently the same name and surname according to the dimensions of the company's registered place, business category, and registered capital.

V. Mainly domestic enterprises, limited liability companies are the mainstream

From the perspective of the types of domestic blockchain enterprises, there are 37,027 domestic-funded enterprises, accounting for 99.47% of the total, and foreign-funded enterprises accounting for only 0.53%.

Table 2: Corporate legal entities grouped by type of registration

Source: Zero One Think Tank

In terms of the specific organizational form of domestic-funded enterprises, China's blockchain companies are mainly limited liability companies (invested or controlled by natural persons), with a total of 15,324, accounting for 49.16% of the total; limited liability companies (wholly owned by natural persons) take second place. 7,543, accounting for 24.18%. Judging from the top ten types of enterprises in the figure below, limited liability companies are currently the main organizational form of China's blockchain companies.

Figure 9: Top10 classification of Chinese blockchain enterprise organization

Source: Zero One Think Tank

Focus on retail and wholesale trade and information service

The data shows that more than 30,000 blockchain companies in China are mainly concentrated in the industry and wholesale and retail industries. There are 11,747 and 8032 information transmission, software, and information technology service industries, each accounting for 37.68% of the total. And 25.77%.

The scientific research and technical service industry accounted for a relatively high proportion in the previous Blockchain census of Zero One Think Tank, but this time only ranked third due to the rapid growth of the wholesale and retail industry and the information service industry.

Figure 10: The distribution of major categories of Chinese blockchain companies

Source: Zero One Think Tank

7. The vast majority of normal operations, only about 2,500 companies were cancelled / revoked

Judging from the operating status of more than 30,000 blockchain companies, most of the blockchain companies in China are in the state of opening or existence.

Since its development in 2009, only about 2,500 companies have been cancelled / revoked.

Figure 11: Operating status of Chinese blockchain companies

Source: Zero One Think Tank

Focus on the development of blockchain technology, and less research and consulting services

In order to better understand the focus of more than 30,000 blockchain companies in China in the field of blockchain, Zero One Think Tank conducted a detailed analysis of the business scope of the company and found that the current blockchain technology in China is based on the development of blockchain technology. There are relatively few service companies such as research, consulting and investment.

Figure 12: Distribution of keywords in the business scope of Chinese blockchain companies

Source: Zero One Think Tank

Specifically, the business scope includes "Internet blockchain technology research and development services", "blockchain technology", "blockchain technology development", "digital encryption technology" and "blockchain technology research and development" and other There are a total of 26,883 blockchain companies related to the development of blockchain technology, accounting for 86.24% of the total. The business scope includes 1,456 companies related to blockchain service applications, such as "blockchain applications", "blockchain services", "blockchain technology services" and "blockchain information services", accounting for 4.7% .

Whether it is the development of blockchain technology or the application of blockchain services, it is directly related to blockchain technology, and the total proportion is more than 90%. In contrast, there are less than 500 companies in the business scope that include "blockchain research", "blockchain consulting", and "blockchain investment".

In addition, there are about 250 companies with “digital currency” directly in their business scope.

Nine, about 1,000 companies that actually carry out blockchain business or focus on blockchain in China

Although the statistics are based on the company name / former name, business scope or product information (name) containing "blockchain", there are currently 31,000 blockchain-related companies in China. However, the actual situation is that there are far fewer blockchain companies that actually carry out blockchain business. Many companies are just "smashing" the popularity of blockchain technology or adding "blockchain" related businesses only after modifying their business scope. The production and operation activities related to the blockchain have not been carried out in reality.

In order to obtain a preliminary understanding of the real situation of China's blockchain enterprises, Zero One Think Tank has adopted the operating status of enterprises with "blockchain" in the name / former name, business scope or product information (name) of more than 30,000 companies across the country. Product information and official website information are further screened. Combined with multi-dimensional data such as financing information, patent information, block chain park entry information, and network information office block chain filing information included in 01FINDs, random sampling and other statistical methods are used to actually develop areas in China. The companies in the blockchain business conducted a preliminary analysis.

The results show that as of October 2019, there are about 1,000 companies that have actually conducted blockchain business or focused on blockchain business in China, including 414 companies that have filed two batches of blockchain information services through the Internet Information Office.

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