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Back then, the question was how a locally trained software engineer could outsmart numerous news portals operated by social media behemoths Tencent Holdings Ltd. and extract profit where even Google had failed. Zhang proved them wrong. Today his company Bytedance Ltd., is on its way to a more than $75 billion valuation—a price tag that surpasses Uber Technologies Inc. to top the world, according to CB Insights. The latest in a long line of investors who have come around is Softbank Group Corp., which plans to invest about $1.5 billion. Bytedance now counts KKR & Co., General Atlantic and even Sequoia as backers. Much of its lofty valuation stems from the creation of an internet experience that’s a cross between Google and Facebook. Zhang said in a 2017 interview, adding that he employs no editors or reporters. “We are doing very innovative work. We are not a copycat of US companies, both in product and technology." What's remarkable is Zhang was able to do it all without taking money from the twin suns of China’s internet: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent. It’s often locked horn with them, in court and elsewhere.