Author: Jin Shan
Recently, there is news that the Internet ranking has changed, and Byte is already the largest Internet company in the country.
Multiple media cited reports from The Information that ByteDance’s revenue and profit scale are equivalent to those of Tencent and Alibaba combined.
Revenue and profit are approaching “Tencent + Alibaba”
Byte = Tencent + Alibaba.
Let’s first look at the hard indicators that best illustrate the problem. Revenue and Profit.
In the first half of 2026, Byte’s revenue was approximately US$120 billion, Alibaba’s US$75.3 billion, and Tencent’s US$59 billion. Alibaba and Tencent have a combined value of US$134.3 billion. Even Byte has surpassed Meta’s revenue in the same period. This means that Byte has also joined the ranks of top players globally.
At the same time, Byte’s net profit was US$20 billion, Tencent’s was US$16.8 billion, and Alibaba’s was US$5.3 billion. Alibaba and Tencent’s combined value is US$22.1 billion, which is only about 10% more than Byte.
Behind the dazzling numbers, there are also hidden worries. However, Byte’s net profit fell by a single-digit percentage year-on-year, and its net profit margin fell from 20% to about 16.7%.
Where is the money spent? Mainly because AI burns money.
As of June 2026, the average daily token calls of Doubao’s large model has exceeded 180 trillion, an increase of more than 10 times in the past year; the daily activity of Doubao App exceeds 200 million. Volcano Engine ranks first in China’s public cloud MaaS market with a 49.5% share. But the cost is equally staggering: According to LatePost, Doubao’s daily income is less than one million yuan, and the daily cost of inference computing power may reach tens of millions of yuan.
Byte CEO Liang Rubo raised Doubao to the same level as Douyin at the mid-year all-hands meeting: “Douyin, as a backbone business, can help e-commerce and life services. We hope that Doubao will also be a main business in the future.” This means that Byte is using the money earned from Douyin to pay for the future of Doubao.
While maintaining such a large volume, Byte’s revenue growth rate is still as high as 30%. This is very rare in the domestic Internet environment.
Byte relies on a set of “algorithm + content” flywheel that can be copied and exported overseas. It can not only sell advertising, but also be an e-commerce company, and it can also be run again in another language overseas. The same growth machine, the domestic market has reached the ceiling, but overseas is still a blue ocean – this is the structural reason why Byte can overtake despite the trend in a world surrounded by giants.
The main reason is the growth of TikTok. Domestic revenue accounts for about 60%, but the overall growth rate is about 20%, leaving little room for imagination. This is also the current situation of many major domestic Internet companies. Then splitting the domestic business, it is reported that the growth rate of e-commerce GMV is about 15%, and the growth rate of local life is 30%. Even Byte has declined last year’s target some time ago.
Overseas revenue growth rate is as high as 50%. 60% of Byte’s revenue comes from domestic sources, and about 40% comes from overseas.
In 2025, GMV will increase by nearly 70% year-on-year, active consumers will reach 400 million, and the scale will approach US$100 billion. Sales in the U.S. market doubled, Europe increased by more than 100%, Brazil’s GMV increased 25 times within three months of launch, and Japan increased 20 times within four months.
China’s largest company by market value changes ownership
According to sources, Byte’s valuation is close to US$600 billion. It has indeed surpassed Tencent and Alibaba. According to today’s closing price, Tencent’s market value is US$490.6 billion and Alibaba’s market value is US$266.6 billion.
If Byte goes public with a valuation of US$600 billion, it will be nearly 20% higher than Tencent and become China’s largest listed company by market value.
Some senior technology investment bankers pointed out that Byte has every chance to hit a market value of US$1 trillion.
But Byte has made the decision not to go public for the time being. According to reports, a person with direct knowledge of the board of directors said that ByteDance’s valuation will only get higher and higher. Why does Zhang Yiming want to go public?
No one will underestimate Tencent and Alibaba.
Because Byte’s 600 billion is the valuation. Mainly the latest pricing, employee option prices and gray market transactions from institutions such as General Atlantic are “consensus prices” rather than “transaction prices”; Tencent’s approximately 500 billion is a market value that is repeatedly calibrated by real money every day.
Valuations may be firm, or they may fluctuate later.
TikTok, which Byte relies on, has been exposed to the spotlight of overseas regulation-data compliance, content review, and even geopolitical games, any of which may puncture the valuation bubble. In addition, the squeeze on profit margins from AI investment has just begun. When computing power bills are rising year by year, it is still unknown whether Byte can turn the money burned back into higher efficiency and revenue.
But regardless of whether it is listed or not, Zhang Yiming’s personal wealth empire has been consolidated. According to the latest statistics from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, 43-year-old Zhang Yiming’s net worth has exceeded US$105 billion, officially surpassing Indian tycoon Gautam Adani and becoming the new richest man in Asia. Most of his wealth comes from ByteDance’s equity.
The switch from the “BAT era” to the “byte era” may not just be a ranking game among the three companies. It means that for the first time, the power of China’s Internet has been handed over to a company based on global products (TikTok) and algorithms – its ceiling is no longer defined by the domestic market. In the past ten years, when we talked about China’s Internet, we couldn’t avoid the pessimistic narratives of “peak traffic” and “fading dividends”; and Byte used a semi-annual report to remind everyone: the ceiling has always been partial, and when you go out, the sea and the sky are brighter.
A company that is not listed on the stock market and a founder that does not ring the bell has simultaneously won the two crowns of “China’s largest Internet company” and “Asia’s richest man”. This is perhaps the most interesting.
When growth and profits no longer depend on the capital market, is going public still so important?
Today, Byte is standing on the top of the mountain. Whether it can hold its position tomorrow still depends on whether it can turn its overseas growth and investment in AI into a real moat. The suspense has just begun.
References:
Observation No. 25: Byte is already the largest Internet company
East Shitiao: Zhang Yiming has become the richest man in Asia
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