(Yicai Global) Sept. 5 -- The United States and China are at the forefront of the global digital economy, which is developing rapidly in terms of activity and wealth generated, according to a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

The two countries have over 75 percent of blockchain technology-related patents, contribute half of global spending on the Internet of Things and take up more than 75 percent of the cloud computing market, UNCTAD said in its Digital Economy Report 2019 released yesterday.

"And, perhaps most strikingly, they account for 90 percent of the market capitalization value of the world's 70 largest digital platforms," the report added.

Seven American and Chinese 'super platforms' account for two-thirds of the digital economy's total market value, according to UNCTAD. In order of value, they are Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and China's Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holdings.

Google occupies 90 percent of the global internet search market, while Facebook has two-thirds of the social media market. Tencent's messaging app WeChat has more than one billion active users in China. Alibaba's online payment solutions which include Alipay have almost the entire third-party mobile payment market in the country. The firm also tops China's e-commerce sector with a nearly 60 percent share.

Worldwide internet data usage has leapfrogged from 100 gigabytes a day in 1992 to 45,000 GB a second in 2017, the report said. It is expected to reach 150,700 GB a second by 2022.

This reflects not only a surge in the number of users, but also the increased development of cutting-edge technologies such as blockchain, data analysis, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, IoT, automation, robotics and cloud computing.

But other parts of the world, especially Africa and Latin America, are in danger of being left behind without enhanced partnerships with and greater leadership by the sector's big players, UNCTAD warned.

Only the full involvement of developing countries can effectively address issues of competition, taxation, cross-border data flows, intellectual property, trade and employment policies in the digital economy at the regional and international levels.