ByteDance

The Chinese tech giant that proves you can work 996, dominate video, and still lose the productivity war to biology.

ByteDance (owner of TikTok/Douyin) adopted China's infamous 996 culture: 9am-9pm, 6 days per week. That's 72 hours versus the Western 40-hour week - 80% more time. The assumption: more hours equal more output. The reality: Chinese tech produces fewer patents per engineering hour than Western counterparts. The productivity paradox isn't about work ethic - it's about circadian biology. Human brains need recovery. Pushing beyond natural limits doesn't double output; it creates diminishing returns and eventually negative returns.

But ByteDance's territorial instincts proved sharper than its understanding of human metabolism. In 2018-2020, the company attempted direct social app intrusions into WeChat's territory with Duoshan and Flipchat. WeChat blocked sharing to ByteDance apps and lobbied the government on unfair competition. Rather than escalate a territorial war it couldn't win, ByteDance pivoted. The company built Douyin (TikTok China) as separate territory: video-first rather than messaging, different usage patterns, different competitive dynamics. The pivot worked - TikTok became one of the most valuable apps in history.

The lesson: you can't violate circadian principles and maintain peak cognitive performance, no matter how much you believe in hustle culture. But you can recognize territorial defense, avoid suicidal battles, and find adjacent undefended territory where your strengths apply. Biology wins on metabolism; strategy wins on territoriality.