36氪_让一部分人先看到未来

For DingTalk's 10th anniversary, its founder returns.

Author | Deng Yongyi

Editors | Su Jianxun, Yang Xuan

36Kr has exclusively learned that Alibaba Group intends to acquire the shares of investors in HHO, a company founded by Chen Hang (nickname: Wuzhao). After the transaction is completed, Chen Hang (Wuzhao) will become the CEO of DingTalk at Alibaba Group. Ye Jun (nickname: Buqiong), the former CEO of DingTalk, will return to Alibaba Group.

Wuzhao is a key figure in Alibaba's To B business. He founded the enterprise service application "DingTalk" from scratch, which is currently one of the enterprise service and collaborative office applications with the largest number of users in China. Wuzhao served as the CEO of Alibaba's DingTalk during his tenure at Alibaba. When he left in 2021, his position level was M6/P11.

Today, DingTalk has become the enterprise application with the largest number of users in the country - with over 700 million users; the total number of ecological partners exceeds 5,600, covering 20 national economic industries and spreading across 135 cities; the daily call volume of DingTalk AI exceeds 10 million times.

36Kr verified this news with Alibaba, and Alibaba officially confirmed it.

Wuzhao is a veteran entrepreneur at Alibaba, and his experience at Alibaba has been quite eventful: In 1999, he interned at Alibaba, but because he later chose to work in Japan for 11 years, he missed the opportunity to become a member of Alibaba's founding team.

It is worth noting that Wuzhao has always maintained close contact with Alibaba's founding members, including Jack Ma and Wu Yongming. In 2010, Wuzhao returned to Taobao because of an invitation from Wu Yongming at that time.

After returning to Taobao, Wuzhao has been concentrating on product development. He has worked on Yitao and Laiwang within the Alibaba system, but they ended in failure. In 2015, he led his team to launch DingTalk, which eventually became another iconic To B product within the Alibaba system.

36Kr has reported on the organizational and personnel changes of Wuzhao and DingTalk exclusively on multiple occasions.

In 2019, after Jack Ma officially announced his retirement, Zhang Yong (nickname: Xiaoyaozhi), who was then the Chairman and CEO of Alibaba, led an organizational upgrade and announced that DingTalk would be merged into Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Business Group. Wuzhao was transferred from DingTalk to the group and reported to Zhang Jianfeng (nickname: Xingdian).

In 2020, a more drastic adjustment came: Alibaba officially announced the "Cloud-Ding Integration" strategy and established the DingTalk Business Unit, which was directly managed by Zhang Jianfeng, the President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. Chen Hang (Wuzhao), the former CEO of Alibaba's DingTalk, left his position at DingTalk and served as an assistant to Zhang Yong (Xiaoyaozhi), the Chairman and CEO of Alibaba.

Some analysts believe that the core of the strategic adjustment of "Cloud-Ding Integration" was that Alibaba at that time hoped to increase the revenue of Alibaba Cloud, and DingTalk at that time could serve as an auxiliary for customer acquisition in the cloud business. However, Alibaba Cloud at that time needed to increase revenue, which conflicted with DingTalk's goal of seeking scale.

In 2021, Wuzhao led a group of core DingTalk executives to start a new business. The new company was named "HHO", and the entrepreneurial direction was in the cross - border overseas market. It received investments from investment institutions including Yuanjing Capital. After that, Wuzhao has been involved in the production of headphones and pet products and has made attempts in the Japanese market.

However, the "Cloud-Ding Integration" strategy did not last long. DingTalk became independent again in August 2023, and then in November 2023, Alibaba officially announced the termination of the spin - off of Alibaba Cloud.

Wuzhao's return also echoes the current background of Alibaba.

After Zhang Yong (Xiaoyaozhi) left Alibaba, Wu Yongming has led a series of reforms and clarified the strategic focus of "putting users first and being driven by AI", refocusing on the core business. Alibaba Cloud, which had intended to go public, was also withdrawn and remained within the Alibaba system. Since 2024, Alibaba's management team has vigorously promoted the youthization of senior executives and the product - oriented grand strategy.

In 2025, Alibaba also began to make efforts in the AI application field - on March 13, Alibaba announced the launch of the AI flagship application "New Quark", which has caused a huge response among C - end users and sparked more industry discussions: on the one hand, it means that Alibaba has finally made a major investment in To C products, which is an important part of the giant's AI strategy; and the "Super Box" bears the exploration of a new AI product form.

Wu Jia, who is currently leading Quark, is an executive talent who has built Quark from scratch. Alibaba currently needs more such roles.

Alibaba Plans to Acquire "Liangqing Yiyang", and Wuzhao Returns to DingTalk | Exclusive from 36Kr

Related Reading