Somehow, thousands of pages of sealed court documents relating to the birth of TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, were mistakenly released by a Pennsylvania court. Before they were made secret again, I read them.

不知何故，宾夕法尼亚州一家法院误将数千页与TikTok所有者字节跳动的诞生有关的封存法庭文件对外公布。我趁着它们再次成为秘密之前阅读了这些文件。

The documents — emails, chat transcripts and memos — are a fascinating window into ByteDance’s origins. They show that Susquehanna International Group, the trading firm of the Republican megadonor Jeff Yass, played a bigger role in the company than previously known.

文件包括了电子邮件、聊天记录和备忘录，是了解字节跳动起源的一个的精彩的窗口。从中可以看到，共和党大金主杰夫·亚斯拥有的金融交易公司——海纳国际集团——在字节跳动的创立过程中所发挥的作用比之前所知的还要大。

They also tell a new version of the ByteDance origin story, one with fits and starts on the way to becoming one of the world’s most highly valued start-ups.

它们还讲述了一个新版本的字节跳动起源故事，一个在成为全球市值最高的初创企业之一的过程中跌宕起伏的故事。

ByteDance grew out of a Chinese real estate site.

字节跳动脱胎于中国一家房地产网站。

The ByteDance origin story, as we know it, has the ring of Silicon Valley lore. As the story goes, the company’s founder, Zhang Yiming, sketched out the idea on a napkin for an employee of a Susquehanna subsidiary in 2012.

我们所熟知的字节跳动的起源故事具有硅谷传奇的光环。据说，2012年，公司创始人张一鸣在一张餐巾纸上为海纳国际集团子公司的一名员工勾勒出了公司的构想。

The pitch was so impressive that Susquehanna jumped onboard.

他的计划赢得了海纳国际集团的认可，他们决定投资。

In actuality, the records show, the story begins in earnest years earlier. Susquehanna’s Chinese subsidiary handpicked Mr. Zhang in 2009 to run a real estate start-up called 99Fang. The company had good search technology that was supposed to match buyers with their perfect properties.

实际上，记录显示，字节跳动的故事还要从几年前说起。2009年，海纳国际集团的中国子公司选中了张一鸣来管理一家名为九九房的房地产初创公司。该公司拥有不错的搜索技术，可以为买家匹配理想的房产。

The company ultimately fizzled, and in 2012, Mr. Zhang wrote in an email that he was bored with real estate. He and Susquehanna stayed in contact as he developed the idea for ByteDance, which he called a “brother enterprise” to the real estate company.

公司最终失败了，2012年，张一鸣在一封电子邮件中写道，房地产让他感到厌倦。在构想字节跳动时，他与海纳国际集团一直保持着联系，他称字节跳动是那家房地产公司的“兄弟企业”。

Instead of matching buyers with homes, he proposed matching users with blooper videos and lifestyle content.

这次，他想的不是在买家和房子之间牵线搭桥，而是将用户与爆笑视频和生活方式内容进行配对。

While still at 99Fang, the documents show, Mr. Zhang created two prototype apps: Funny Pictures and Pretty Babes. They were a hit.

文件显示，在九九房任职期间，张一鸣开发了两个原型应用程序，一个是搞笑囧图，一个是内涵段子。它们大受欢迎。

ByteDance was originally called Xiangping.

字节跳动最初叫享评。

An early investment memo describes plans for a company that sounds, well, a lot like TikTok.

一份早期投资备忘录描述了一家听起来很像TikTok的公司的计划。

Originally called Xiangping, which roughly translates to “share comments,” the new company was based on a simple idea: Instead of having users choose people or groups to follow, Xiangping would mine their data and select content for them.

这家新公司基于一个简单的想法：不要让用户去选择关注哪些人或群组，而是挖掘他们的数据，为他们选择内容。

The goal was to “pick the hottest information to jump-start the viral spreading,” reads the memo, which was prepared by Susquehanna’s Chinese subsidiary.

备忘录写道，目标是“挑选最热门的信息来启动病毒式传播”。该备忘录由海纳国际集团的中国子公司撰写。

The documents are “remarkable,” Andrew Collier, the managing director at Orient Capital Research, told me. Although the project was clearly in flux, he added, the letter “outlines a business plan for a company that does sound a lot like the current-day TikTok.”

东方资本研究公司的董事总经理安德鲁·科利尔告诉我，这些文件“很惊人”。他还表示，尽管该项目当时明显还没有最后成型，但这封信“概述的商业计划，听起来很像现在的TikTok”。

Mr. Zhang became the company’s founder.

张一鸣成为了公司的创始人。

Where did the TikTok technology come from?

TikTok的技术来自何处？

Two former contractors are suing Susquehanna, accusing the firm of taking cutting-edge search technology to ByteDance without compensating them.

两名前承包商正在起诉海纳国际集团，指控后者将他们研发的尖端搜索技术给了字节跳动，却没有对他们进行赔偿。

Susquehanna denies that and is fighting the lawsuit. And it is clear that the TikTok algorithm — which serves up videos that keep people scrolling — evolved over the years.

海纳国际集团否认了这一指控，并在应诉。TikTok的算法——提供让人们不断滑动屏幕的视频——多年来显然经历了演变。

But the documents do show that ByteDance emerged from Susquehanna’s earlier investment in 99Fang. Whether the technology did, too, is a question that could end up before a jury.

但这些文件确实显示，字节跳动脱胎于海纳国际集团早期投资的九九房。这项技术是否也是如此，这个问题最终可能会提交给陪审团。

Yass’s firm bet small and won big.

亚斯的公司以小博大。

In 2012, Susquehanna’s Chinese subsidiary valued ByteDance at about $9 million. And it invested a little over $2 million in early money in the idea. It later contributed “hundreds of millions” more, according to court filings.

2012年，海纳国际集团的中国子公司对字节跳动的估值约为900万美元。它为这个想法投入了200多万美元的早期资金。根据法庭文件，它后来又投入了“数亿美元”。

Today, the company is worth $225 billion, according to CB Insights, a firm that tracks venture capital and start-ups.

根据跟踪风险投资和初创企业的公司CB Insights的数据，该公司现在的市值为2250亿美元。

It was the venture capital equivalent of a home run.

这相当于风险投资的本垒打。

That payoff is at risk.

这种回报也有风险。

Some U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns about national security. They say that TikTok has too much data on Americans and that ByteDance, a Chinese company, could use its algorithm to feed disinformation and propaganda to users.

一些美国议员提出了对国家安全的担忧。他们说，TikTok掌握了太多关于美国人的数据，并表示字节跳动作为一家中国公司，可能利用其算法向用户提供虚假信息和宣传。

Congress is debating a bill that would either ban TikTok in the United States or force ByteDance to sell the app.

国会正在讨论一项法案，要么在美国禁止TikTok，要么迫使字节跳动出售这款应用。

That would be devastating to Susquehanna, which, according to reporting by The New York Times and others, owns a roughly 15 percent stake in ByteDance.

这对海纳国际集团来说将是毁灭性的打击，据《纽约时报》和其他媒体报道，它拥有字节跳动约15%的股份。

Mr. Yass is financing a libertarian group that is defending TikTok. He is also the largest donor this election cycle, with more than $46 million in contributions through the end of last year, according to OpenSecrets, a research group that tracks money in politics.

亚斯正在资助一个为TikTok辩护的自由主义团体。根据追踪政治资金的研究机构OpenSecrets的数据，截至去年年底，亚斯的捐款超过了4600万美元，是这个选举周期中最大的捐款者。

The documents are sealed again.

这些文件已再次封存。

After reading the records, my colleague and I began asking people for comment. Lawyers for Susquehanna responded, saying the documents should not have been made public. They contacted the court, and the documents were sealed again.

看完这些记录后，我和同事开始找人置评。海纳国际集团的律师回应说，这些文件不应该公开。他们联系了法院，文件再次被封存。