Asia/Pacific spending on blockchain solutions will reach $522.7 million in 2019 – recording an increase of 81% when compared to 2018 – according to the latest IDC Worldwide Semiannual Blockchain Spending Guide. IDC expects blockchain spending in Asia/Pacific to grow rapidly with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 59.8% that will amount to a total of $3 billion over the 2018-23 forecast period.

“Asia/Pacific Blockchain technology investments are estimated to be more than $3 billon by 2023,” said Ashutosh Bisht, Senior Research Manager at IDC Asia/Pacific. “The financial services sector will dominate the blockchain spending for the overall forecast period, with major investments towards Tracking, tracing, and managing cross-border/international payments and settlements, Providing a record of transactions in payments between parties involved in the transaction is another focus area for the financial enterprises in the region.”

At the end of 2019, IDC projects the following in terms of spending in blockchain solutions: banking, securities & investment services, and insurance industries to invest a combined total of $296.3 million; driven by the discrete and process manufacturing industries, the manufacturing and resources sector are predicted to invest $91.7 million; the distribution and services sector led by the retail and professional services industries are estimated to spend $89.4 million; and the infrastructure sector will see the fastest growth (CAGR 81.2%), followed by the public sector (CAGR 73.6%) over the 2018-23 forecast period.

The blockchain use cases that will have significant investment over the forecast period are trade finance & post-trade/transaction settlements, cross-border payments & settlements, and regulatory compliance. Combined, the three use cases will make up of more than 40.3% of the total blockchain spending. All the use cases identified by IDC will see significant spending growth over the 2018-23 forecast period, among them with the fastest spending growth (CAGR) are energy settlements, and property ownership management.

IT services and business services combined will represent 60% of blockchain spending in 2019, with IT services slightly receiving more investment. Blockchain platform under software will be the second largest technology category, accounting for 27.3% of the total spending in 2019.

Asia/Pacific contributes around 19.3% of the overall worldwide spending on blockchain, topped by US and Western Europe in 2019. Over the 2018-23 forecast period, China will contribute about 68% of all blockchain spending in Asia/Pacific, it will see a significant spending growth (CAGR 65.7%), while Asia/Pacific records 50.3% CAGR.

"The adoption rate of Blockchain technology has been growing at a steady pace. Use cases leveraging on Blockchain are maturing as well, filtering out the overhyped or solutions overselling the technology from the implementations where blockchain brings value to the ecosystems. The technology is here to stay, organizations need to assess the benefits that blockchain can bring to the business like the way it assesses other emerging technology. Identifying realistic areas of implementation where the technology can reduce cost and increase efficiency. With proper analysis, leveraging the adoption of blockchain, can assist organizations to enhance their digital transformation journey," says Jeff Xie, Senior Market Analyst at IDC Asia/Pacific.