Global blockchain ebb in 2019, China's "dominance" strengthens

It seems that China's losses in patents in other fields have to be made up for in new technologies. This is true for 5G, and even more so for blockchain.

At the end of 2019, Interchain Pulse counted the patent applications of the blockchain as of the end of December 2019. China added 4,488 new blockchain patents last year, and once again became the global champion in number. During the same period, 551 US patent applications were filed. The number of applications in other countries or regions is China's fraction.

On the other hand, in 2019, the global blockchain patent application volume as a whole has fallen sharply. Among the major economies, China has a large base and a small decline, which has widened the distance from other countries.

Global ebb of blockchain patents

Many countries have their own intellectual property registration departments. In the past, when statistics on blockchain patents were used, most of the media searched for patents in English and Chinese, including searching in the world intellectual property database.

But as a result, patent applications filed in these countries or regions in their own languages ​​were ignored. Interlink Pulse uses more than 20 major global texts to search (the number of different texts to retrieve the more), resulting in more accurate data.

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(Chart: Interchain Pulse Data Source: innojoy)

According to the statistics of the inter-chain pulse, as of the end of 2019, China has applied for a total of 12,430 blockchain patents, winning the world. It was followed by the United States with 2,404 cases; South Korea recorded 921 patents in Korean searches, ranking third. Followed by France, Germany, Spain, and Japan, 726, 601, 600, and 423 blockchain patents were recorded. It is worth noting that these countries do not rank high in English searches.

Among the top ten, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada are all English-speaking countries, ranking 8-10.

On the whole, in 2019, the popularity of global blockchain patent applications has dropped significantly compared to the previous year. In the English speaking area, the number of applications in 2019 decreased by 36.42% compared to 2018. Among them, the number of applications in the United States dropped by 39.78%. Japan and South Korea both experienced a decline of more than 80%.

China added 4,488 new applications for blockchain patents in 2019, a decrease of nearly 27% from 6,143 in 2018, which is the smallest decline among major economies. It is worth noting that in the middle of 2019, the number of patent applications for China's blockchain was less than 1,000. In the second half of the year, especially with the support of national policies, the number of patent applications for blockchain increased significantly.

(Tabulation: interchain pulse data source: innojoy)

From the number of patent applications, it can be seen that the research and development of the blockchain industry is actually divided into two regions: China and foreign countries. Foreign countries are concentrated in the United States, but the number of patent applications in the United States differs from China by an order of magnitude. At present, the total amount is only a fraction of that in China.

China's investment in blockchain research and development surpassed the United States after 2016 (inclusive), and before 2016, the United States was in absolute leadership. In 2016, a number of native blockchain projects were born in China, and traditional technology companies have also entered the blockchain field, so China's blockchain R & D has begun to catch up.

It is worth noting that some Chinese companies have become large patent applicants in other countries. For example, Alibaba's patent applications in the United States and South Korea have entered the top three.

(Tabulation: interchain pulse data source: innojoy)

(Tabulation: interchain pulse data source: innojoy)

China's Blockchain R & D Pattern

Alibaba is actively deploying blockchain patents overseas, and it has ranked first in domestic applications for many years. According to innojoy statistics, so far, Alibaba Group has applied for 674 blockchain patents in China. If you add overseas, Alibaba Group is the world's first company with over 1,000 patent applications for blockchain. Tencent ranked second with 621 cases.

The number of patent applications of Ruitest Technology, China Unicom, Complex Midea, Ping An Technology, and E-Account all exceeded 200, ranking 3-7. It is worth noting that both Ping An Technology and E-Account belong to Ping An of China, and the two companies have a total of 423 patents. The first company in the United States to apply for blockchain-related patents, IBM, ranked only seventh in China.

150 patents are the top ten thresholds for China's blockchain patents. Wangxin Technology entered the top ten with 156 pieces, and there are Baidu and Yuanzheng Technology not far away. This data is second only to IBM in the United States.

(Tabulation: interchain pulse data source: innojoy)

Blockchain patent applications reflect the company's investment and emphasis on blockchain research and development. Specifically compare the situation in 2019 and 2018. In the context of the ebb of global blockchain R & D investment, some Chinese companies have increased their investment in blockchain.

Interchain pulse discovery. Among the top 20 companies with new applications for blockchain patents in 2019, 8 applied for more than in 2018. Among them, Tencent increased its investment in patents significantly in the second half of 2019. Last year, 425 applications were added, compared with 325 in 2018. More patents were added last year than Alibaba.

Ruize Technology is a dark horse. Before 2019, it did not record one patent application, but in 2019, it applied for 284. There may be surprise applications.

Alibaba has more normal data, with 303 applications in 2018 and 305 applications in 2019. Shenzhen One Account increased investment last year, applying for 71 more applications than in 2018. Wangxin Technology and Weizhong Bank both use blockchain as their main strategy and are not afraid of the market. They continue to increase blockchain research and development.

After all, blockchain is still relatively difficult to bring profit at this stage. Most Chinese companies may have contracted research and development, which is also reflected in the number of blockchain patent applications. Both Baidu and ZhongAn entered the blockchain research and development earlier, but compared to 2018, the number of patent applications has decreased by 60.

(Tabulation: interchain pulse data source: innojoy)

From the provincial level, Guangdong and Beijing have more than 3,000 blockchain patent applications, which are relatively active cities. Followed by Zhejiang Province and Shanghai.

(Chart: Interchain Pulse Data Source: innojoy)

In terms of cities, Beijing and Shenzhen lead the way with 3,069 and 2,853 applications, respectively, followed by Hangzhou and Shanghai, with 857 and 838 applications, respectively.

(Chart: Interchain Pulse Data Source: innojoy)

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