Can the post-90s new leader fix DingTalk's "old loopholes"?
Produced by Radar Finance
Text by Zhou Hui
Edited by Meng Shuai
The continuous fermentation of "Inside DingTalk" has made Alibaba, which is fully committed to AI, briefly pause and look back to sort out the "loopholes" left in the process of transformation.
Not long ago, Teng Yaxin, the former core product manager of the DingTalk ONE project, posted a "10,000-word essay" titled "Inside DingTalk" on Alibaba's internal network. As she reviewed the process of the "failure" of DingTalk's flagship AI project in the article and exposed the management problems within the DingTalk team, it quickly sparked heated discussions.
Ma Ruila, the former vice president of DingTalk and the person in charge of AI products, even said bluntly, "I feel sorry for those classmates who have seriously thought, seriously done, and seriously struggled in DingTalk."
On June 10, the Alibaba Partnership Committee posted an article on the internal network, criticizing the management style of the DingTalk team as "not in line with what Alibaba's culture should be" and emphasizing that the most precious asset of Alibaba is every Alibaba employee.
On June 11, Alibaba announced an adjustment to the management of DingTalk: Chen Hang, the "father of DingTalk" who just returned last year, stepped down as CEO again, and was succeeded by Chen Yusen, a post-90s tech geek, who thus became the youngest division CEO of Alibaba.
It is worth mentioning that although the DingTalk ONE project ended due to various reasons in the end, the wave of Alibaba's AI is still surging forward. According to Alibaba CEO Wu Yongming, Alibaba's full-stack AI technology investment has entered a positive cycle of large-scale commercial returns.
Alibaba's latest financial report shows that in the quarter ended March 31, 2026, the revenue of the company's Cloud Intelligence Group reached 41.626 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 38%. Among them, AI-related products contributed 8.971 billion yuan in revenue, achieving triple-digit year-on-year growth for the eleventh consecutive quarter.
The 10,000-word essay sparks heated discussions, and DingTalk is caught in the "Inside DingTalk" storm
Recently, a 10,000-word essay titled "Inside DingTalk" on Alibaba's internal network has gone viral on the Internet, sparking extensive discussions among netizens.
It is reported that the author of the article is Teng Yaxin (with the nickname "Yousu"), the former core product manager of the DingTalk ONE project. In the article, she reviewed the process from the project's establishment to its end and exposed many problems within the team, such as high-pressure involution, ineffective internal friction, and overtime culture.
After the article was published, it quickly resonated with Ma Ruila, the former vice president of DingTalk and the person in charge of AI products. On June 8, Ma Ruila published an article titled "Outside DingTalk" on his personal official account, sharing his feelings after reading the above "10,000-word essay".
Ma Ruila said, "I feel sorry for those classmates who have seriously thought, seriously done, and seriously struggled in DingTalk."
At the same time, he also reflected on the current situation of Alibaba's values of "customers first, employees second, and shareholders third": "When an organization enters an extremely high-pressure state, what exactly does 'employees second' mean? Does it mean that employees rank second, or does it mean that employees always have to make concessions in the second place?"
In addition, Ma Ruila revealed in the article that he completed the resignation procedures on May 15, ending his three-year career at Alibaba and officially leaving DingTalk.
Regarding the reason for his resignation, Ma Ruila said, "I am increasingly unable to confirm whether I am creating a product or just consuming my body to catch up with an ever-advancing rhythm."
As a former senior executive of DingTalk, Ma Ruila still hopes that Wuzhao (Chen Hang's nickname) can lead DingTalk to regain its glory, "but the price should not be that everyone uses working hours to burn themselves out."
As the public opinion continued to ferment, Alibaba's core leadership did not choose to "stay outside DingTalk".
On June 10, the Alibaba Partnership Committee posted an article on the internal network - "Being kind, just, and growing is the essence of Alibaba's culture", officially responding to the controversy caused by the article "Inside DingTalk" recently.
The article pointed out that the management style of the DingTalk team described in "Inside DingTalk" "has never been the direction advocated by Alibaba's culture and is not in line with what Alibaba's culture should be."
"People are the most precious asset of Alibaba," the Alibaba Partnership Committee emphasized. "Mutual respect, treating people as individuals, and being kind and just are the cultural foundation of Alibaba. No matter how the times change and how technology develops, Alibaba must never change these foundations."
At the same time, the Alibaba Partnership Committee also pointed out that Alibaba's future lies in innovation, but innovation has never relied on high pressure and mechanical execution, but on the passion and creativity of every Alibaba employee, especially in the AI era.
The "father of DingTalk" leaves for the second time, and a post-90s tech geek takes over
As the "Inside DingTalk" continues to ferment, DingTalk founder Chen Hang has also been pushed into the spotlight.
According to Tianyancha information, DingTalk (China) Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "DingTalk") was established in 2018 and is a provider of enterprise communication and collaborative office platforms under Alibaba. The company's product matrix includes innovative tools such as DingTalk ONE, AI Spreadsheet, and Meeting AI.
As the "father of DingTalk", Chen Hang's connection with Alibaba began in 1999. At that time, Chen Hang joined the startup team as Alibaba's first intern.
After 2000, Chen Hang worked in Japan for a long time and served as the chief technical architect and product manager of enterprise search engine products at HP Japan.
Around 2010, at the invitation of Wu Yongming, a co-founder of Alibaba, Chen Hang returned to Alibaba and was successively in charge of the development of Taobao's main search and Yitao (an e-commerce price comparison platform).
In 2013, Chen Hang was in charge of Alibaba's social product "Laiwang", but since it failed to shake WeChat's position, the project ultimately failed.
Subsequently, Chen Hang led the team to develop enterprise-level applications and officially launched DingTalk in January 2015. Under Chen Hang's leadership, DingTalk quickly became the largest enterprise communication application in China.
In 2017, in the "2017 China Unicorn Enterprise Development Report" released by the Ministry of Science and Technology, DingTalk was listed with a valuation of $1.55 billion.
In 2019, DingTalk was first incorporated into the Alibaba Cloud system. The following year, Zhang Jianfeng, then president of the Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Business Group, proposed the "Cloud-DingTalk Integration Strategy". DingTalk was then upgraded to the DingTalk Division and fully integrated into Alibaba Cloud, while Chen Hang was transferred to be the special assistant to Zhang Yong.
Due to differences in strategic directions, Chen Hang left to start his own business in 2021 and founded Liangqingyiyang (Hangzhou) Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
In 2023, Alibaba launched the "1+6+N" organizational transformation. DingTalk became independent from the Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Business Group, and its organizational structure returned to the group, becoming one of the group's first batch of strategic innovation businesses.
With the advent of the AI era, DingTalk has become the "flag-bearer" of Alibaba's AI To B. In March last year, at the invitation of Wu Yongming, the current CEO of Alibaba Group, Chen Hang officially returned and took over as the CEO of DingTalk again.
In August of the same year, DingTalk launched its flagship AI project - DingTalk ONE. As the core tool for DingTalk to enter the Agent track, the ONE project features an active AI work information flow of "tasks finding people". At the initial stage of its launch, the peak DAU once exceeded 3 million.
While the "Inside DingTalk" was going viral, the "father of DingTalk" left again. On June 11, Alibaba announced an adjustment to the management of DingTalk: Chen Hang stepped down as the CEO of DingTalk and was succeeded by Chen Yusen.
It is reported that Chen Yusen was born in 1992 and is a well-known tech geek who has won many championships in top computer competitions at home and abroad.
At the age of 22, Chen Yusen founded the network security company Changting Technology, which was later acquired by Alibaba Cloud. In 2025, Chen Yusen started an internal business at Alibaba Cloud and led the team to develop the AI Agent product MuleRun.
After taking over DingTalk this time, Chen Yusen will become the youngest division CEO of Alibaba.
The "failed" DingTalk ONE and the surging wave of Alibaba's AI
Before Chen Hang's departure, the AI project DingTalk ONE he promoted had already "failed" earlier.
According to Jinzhao News, regarding the failure of DingTalk ONE, the author of "Inside DingTalk" summarized it from the aspects of product positioning, implementation design, internal management, and industry competition.
In terms of product positioning, there was a contradiction of "wanting everything" from the very beginning of the ONE project: it wanted to rely on AI to relieve the burden on basic employees, and at the same time carried multiple demands such as DingTalk's commercial exploration, the implementation of the group's AI strategy, and the management's business demonstration.
During the product implementation stage, the project unexpectedly achieved positive implementation results in standardized employment scenarios such as cleaning and security, but was shelved because it did not conform to the top-level strategic plan.
In the product design stage, the design of automatically marking messages as read in the ONE project once triggered strong resistance from a large number of front-line users and was called "read terrorism" by internal practitioners.
Although the team subsequently launched various patches for optimization, it was unable to change the underlying rules. At the same time, the lack of PC adaptation was contrary to the actual usage habits of the main workforce in office work on computers. The interference of the information section with work further reduced the product retention rate.
At the same time, the internal management mechanism was also an important factor restricting the project implementation. The rapid iteration system of "one package per day" brought a heavy technical debt. The strict morning and evening meeting system and the performance evaluation system strongly linked to attendance made employees work under overload. The high confidentiality of the project also led to a significant increase in the cross-departmental communication cost.
In terms of industry competition, DingTalk focused too much on concept packaging, and the implementation of the grand product framework lagged behind the demonstration effect of the Demo. When benchmarking against competitors' dynamics, the internal team was prone to fall into a situation of all employees working overtime to catch up with the rhythm and making up for shortcomings with working hours, while ignoring the refinement of the product logic.
Finally, with the adjustment of the company's strategy, the subsequent resources of the ONE project were gradually tilted towards Wukong Agent, and the former flagship AI project was downgraded to a small side function.
However, the "failure" of DingTalk ONE is just a wave in the wave of Alibaba's AI, and the group is still striding forward on the road of "All in AI".
On June 8, Alibaba announced the merger of the Tongyi Big Model Division and the Future Life Laboratory to establish the Token Foundry Division.
The newly established division will be led by the group CEO Wu Yongming himself. At the same time, Zhou Jingren, the person in charge of the Tongyi Big Model, was promoted to the chief scientist and led the establishment of the Alibaba AI Future Research Institute, focusing on the exploration of the next-generation architecture.
Some analysts believe that AI is currently Alibaba's top strategic priority. The fact that the CEO personally leads the new division means that resource allocation, capital investment, and cross-business coordination can all be quickly decided at the highest level of the group in the future.
In addition, in terms of commercialization, Alibaba's AI strategy has also made significant progress. Wu Yongming said that Alibaba's full-stack AI technology investment has officially crossed the initial cultivation stage and entered a positive cycle of large-scale commercial returns.
According to Alibaba's latest financial report, in the quarter ended March 31, 2026, the revenue of the company's Cloud Intelligence Group reached 41.626 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 38%. Among them, the external commercial revenue increased by 40% year-on-year.
Alibaba said in the financial report that this growth momentum was mainly driven by the revenue growth of the public cloud business, including the increase in the adoption of AI-related products. The company's AI-related products contributed 8.971 billion yuan in revenue in that quarter, achieving triple-digit year-on-year growth for the eleventh consecutive quarter.
After the "Inside DingTalk" storm, what kind of development will Alibaba and DingTalk face in the future? Radar Finance will continue to follow up.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Radar Finance". Author: Editor X. Republished by