Alibaba Group Holding, in a bid to take leadership in the blockchain industry, has filed more than 10 percent of the world's technology-related patent applications for blockchain. While some of its 43 filings in 2017 are still awaiting approval, a few of those may already be integrated into some of the company's services at present.
Alibaba has also been actively building partnerships with various blockchain companies to be able to integrate the technology into an array of its services.
Beginning Sept. 30 all packet of Wuchang rice to be sold via Alibaba's Tmall platform will have a QR code. This comes after Alibaba's Ant Financial and Alipay announced a partnership with the municipal government of the northeastern Heilongjiang Province that involved the use of blockchain. The technology will ensure that all packets of rice with the QR code are genuinely produced in the province. The platform's tracking system will allow customers to see information about the products' harvest time and type of seed used in planting.
In June, Ant Financial has also partnered with Philippines' GCash. The partnership allowed for cheaper international money transfers where both senders and receivers can track the journey of their money. The platform offers a huge market potential according to Nikkei Asian Review, particularly in Asia where a significant part of the population is migrant workers who remit money to their families back in their home countries.
Alibaba has also partnered with accountancy firm PwC, health supplements company Blackmores which is based in Australia and dairy producer Fonterra which is headquartered in New Zealand.
Alibaba is also looking into integrating the blockchain technology in the healthcare industry. The company partnered with the local government of Changzhou in eastern China. The partnership allows authorized doctors to access their patients' medical histories.
In March, data from Thomson Reuters showed a significant increase in the investment in the blockchain technology following the rise of Bitcoin. The increase was also sparked by the financial institutions' interest as the technology has dramatically cut their back-office operational costs. Specifically, technology-related blockchain patents filed worldwide has tripled, surging to a record high of 406 in 2017, compared to 134 in 2016.
Although China is currently engaged in a cryptocurrency crackdown, the government is keen to welcome blockchain. The Thomson Reuters data showed that China filed more technology-related blockchain patents than the United States. In fact, as much as 56 percent of the 406 patent filing in 2017 was delivered by China. The United States only accounted for merely 22 percent.
Aside from Alibaba, Tencent Holdings, Baidu has also led the number of patent filings coming from China.
Elsewhere in the world, the top filer by any single entity in 2017 was payment services provider, Mastercard. The second largest was nChain Holdings, a research, and development company focusing on blockchain technology. The third largest was Coin Plug, a cryptocurrencies exchange platform which also invests in the blockchain technology.
