Chinese tech giants Tencent, Alibaba filed for the most blockchain patents last year

China • April 12, 2020, 11:44AM EDT
UPDATED: April 16, 2020, 2:25PM EDT
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Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba filed the most blockchain patent applications in 2019, according to research conducted by The Block’s Steven Zheng.

Tencent and its affiliates filed for 718 blockchain patents out of a total of over 5,800, while Alibaba Group filed 470. Together, they accounted for over 20% of the total.


Tencent and Alibaba were followed by WeBank, Ruize Technology, and Ant Financial, in that particular order - and all these three companies are also based in China.

Overall, about 63% of firms with over 20 blockchain patent filings are based in China. The U.S. follows next. It is worth noting that while 2019 saw over 5,800 patent applications, only 3% of them were granted in the same year.

To read the full analysis and more such data-driven stories, subscribe to The Block Research.

Update: The data used to determine the number of patent applications is based on Google Patent filters deduplicated for “Family” patents

AUTHOR

Yogita Khatri profile picture Yogita Khatri

Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block and the author of The Funding newsletter. As our longest-serving editorial member, Yogita has been instrumental in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With over 3,000 articles to her name, Yogita is The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Before joining The Block, Yogita wrote for CoinDesk and The Economic Times. You can reach her at [email protected] or follow her latest updates on X at @Yogita_Khatri5.

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