Snapshot · The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
ByteDance's last private market valuation was approximately $600 billion, despite estimated 2025 revenues of $186 billion — a fraction of what a Meta-style multiple would imply.
Where this was said
At 45:51 · chapter starts 43:20
The conversation turns to the CCP's paradoxical relationship with extreme wealth. Ed Elson wonders what Mao would think of a China that harbors billionaires worth tens of billions — Zhang Yiming at $93 billion, Ma Huateng at $63 billion, Colin Huang at $45 billion. Alice Han frames it as 'socialism with Chinese characteristics': the private sector employs 80–90% of the Chinese workforce and drives the innovation and productivity the state needs to achieve its geopolitical ambitions. The government has implicitly co-opted the tech billionaires as instruments of national strategy. But the tightrope is real: Jack Ma's brief disappearance following a regulatory speech shows exactly where the line is. Being useful is tolerated; being a political threat is not. Alice concludes that China's billionaires are 'tolerated with varying degrees of tolerance' — and a trillionaire would likely cross a line that even Xi Jinping's pragmatism can't ignore.
ByteDance generated $186 billion in revenue in 2025 — slightly above Meta. At Meta's valuation multiple, it would be a $2 trillion company. Instead, it trades in private markets at $600 billion because of the 'China tax': the fear that any investment could be 'jackma'd' by Beijing at any time.
Bhanu grew SiteGPT to $13,000 monthly recurring revenue entirely through organic channels, spending nothing on paid marketing.
More than 1 million people have visited SiteGPT's website since launch in March 2023, all through organic channels.
Approximately 90% of SiteGPT's Google search traffic comes from the free tools Bhanu built, not the main product pages.
Bhanu sold his first SaaS product, Feather, for $250,000 so he could focus fully on the faster-growing SiteGPT.
SiteGPT has generated approximately $500,000 in total revenue since its launch in March 2023.
The average customer lifetime value for SiteGPT is approximately $1,700 to $1,800, which Bhanu considers unusually high.
SiteGPT receives around 50,000 visitors per month, of which about 200 convert to leads and 60 start free trials.
SiteGPT hit $10,000 MRR within its very first month of launch, driven largely by early traction in the AI chatbot space.
Despite strong download numbers, PropGPT could not push past $1,000–$2,000 MRR due to poor product retention.
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