Chinese Internet Giant Baidu Launches Blockchain-as-a-Service Platform
Chinese web search giant Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) has now launched its own blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platform, calling it the “most user-friendly” blockchain service in the industry.
According to Baidu, this platform was built on the company’s self-developed project, and it can make and trace transactions related to digital currencies, digital bills, bank credit management, insurance management and financial auditing.
This BaaS platform launch is seen as a move to combat its Chinese rival Tencent, which already rolled out its own BaaS service a few months ago.
“We independently developed a complete set of bottom-layer blockchain protocols and actively participated in the formulation of credible blockchain standards for China Institute of Information and Communications,” said Guo Rui, Tencent’s Vice President of Payment Platform and Financial Applications, in a forum in Chengdu in November 2017. Guo also stressed that the blockchain industry has entered an era where technology and application scenarios are effectively integrated.
In addition to Baidu and Tencent, Chinese tech giant Alibaba is also in the process of developing its own blockchain technology.
“We have a team specifically to study that,” said Alibaba’s founder and chairman Jack Ma in a CNBC interview in December 2017. “We’ve spent a lot of efforts on blockchain technology at Alibaba.”
In fact, Alibaba’s Ant Financial previously used blockchain technology (in Chinese) on its donation platform in Alipay back in July 2016. AliHealth, Alibaba’s health affiliate, has also launched a health service in cooperation with Changzhou city government to integrate blockchain technology with the city’s hospital system to store and transmit medical data with encryption protection.
With Baidu’s blockchain platform launch today, the top three tech firms in China have now entered the global blockchain revolution.
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