Ant Digital Technologies, a subsidiary of the Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, wants its new Hong Kong blockchain venture Zan to become a major technology provider in the global Web3 industry, harnessing the city’s supportive environment for the sector, Zan’s chief executive said in an interview.
Ant started the blockchain project in September last year with the goal of creating a critical technology company at the heart of Web3, the way Google and Microsoft became vital service providers to traditional industries in the Web 2.0 era, Zan CEO Cobe Zhang Hui told the Post on Thursday.
“We hope to bring the technology services that Ant has accumulated over the years, including not only blockchain, but also those we have developed in the field of financial compliance, to Web3 developers,” Zhang said.
He added that Zan is aiming for its suite of technical solutions for Web3 developers, including services as a node provider and for know-your-customer verification, to achieve the largest market share in Asia-Pacific within two or three years, Zhang said.
Ant Group is an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the Post.
Ant Digital Technologies already operates AntChain, currently China’s biggest enterprise-facing blockchain platform. The company had 26.5 per cent of the blockchain-as-a-service market in China in 2023, while rival Tencent Holdings was the second-largest provider with 18 per cent of the market, according to a report by research firm IDC in July.
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Is cryptocurrency too risky for China?
Is cryptocurrency too risky for China?
Ant established Zan in Hong Kong to expand its blockchain services outside mainland China, according to Zhang.
“AntChain had already made it to the top in mainland China’s blockchain market,” Zhang said. “Setting up an entity in Hong Kong gives us more freedom to explore, given the city’s [supportive] policy guidance and environment.”
Mainland China is relatively conservative about certain Web3 innovations, and Ant hopes to do more “forward-looking” things in Hong Kong’s “open environment”, he added.
The Chinese government has over the years ramped up its crackdown on cryptocurrencies – the main use case of blockchain technology today – saying that they disrupt economic and financial order and are a breeding ground for criminal activity.
Hong Kong, meanwhile, has been pushing to develop into a virtual asset hub and attract business to the city, with tacit approval from Beijing.
Alibaba’s domestic e-commerce rival JD.com also created a Hong Kong subsidiary this year, named Jingdong Coinlink, which participated in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)’s stablecoin sandbox that launched in July.
Ant Digital Technologies is among the participants in the HKMA’s wholesale central bank digital currency sandbox announced on Thursday, which explores tokenisation across a range of scenarios.
The company is involved in sandbox projects that tokenise electric vehicle charging stations and electronic bills of lading, a document used in the global shipping industry.
“The trading of tokenised assets and funds on the blockchain has a similar technical model to that of public blockchains today, but it is in a more regulated and secure environment, where you won’t lose money because of a private key,” Zhang said.
“That makes it more user-friendly for the general public.”
