For over a decade, DingTalk was the undisputed 'wolf' of the Chinese enterprise market, driven by founder Chen Hang’s obsession with extreme pressure and absolute control. However, in June 2026, this high-octane management style reached a spectacular breaking point. Following a series of viral open letters exposing a surveillance-heavy work culture, Alibaba announced that Chen Hang, better known by his alias 'Wu Zhao,' would step down as CEO.
The leadership shake-up was triggered by the release of a 75,000-word memo titled 'Inside DingTalk,' which detailed a toxic environment of 'Golden Snitch' patrols and mandatory 9:00 AM meetings. The author described a culture where managers monitored office lights to ensure they stayed on later than competitors and where interviewees were forced to onboard their entire families onto the app as a test of loyalty. This 'alienated control culture,' once seen as the engine of DingTalk’s rapid growth, is now being blamed for stifling the very creativity required for the AI era.
At the heart of the crisis is a fundamental mismatch between traditional 'mobile-first' management and the requirements of generative AI. Under Wu Zhao, DingTalk attempted to launch 'ONE,' an AI-driven project meant to revolutionize productivity. However, the project buckled under the weight of conflicting goals: it was expected to be a surveillance tool for bosses, a productivity aid for employees, and a cash cow for Alibaba, all at once. The result was a product that users described as a 'worker’s nightmare' of digital oppression.
In a strategic pivot, Alibaba has now subsumed DingTalk into the newly formed 'ATH' business unit, led directly by Alibaba CEO Wu泳铭 (Eddie Wu). DingTalk’s role has been downgraded from a standalone 'super-app' to a foundational infrastructure layer for 'Goku,' the company’s new enterprise AI platform. This move signals that Alibaba is no longer prioritizing DingTalk as a consumer-facing traffic portal, but rather as the 'plumbing' for its broader AI ecosystem.
The appointment of 34-year-old technical geek Chen Yusen as the new CEO marks a generational shift in Alibaba’s leadership hierarchy. Unlike the veteran 'product tyrants' of the previous decade, Chen represents a new breed of leadership that prioritizes 'AI-native' logic over brute-force execution. His task will be to repair a fractured internal culture while proving that DingTalk can finally monetize its 700 million users in a market where rivals like ByteDance’s Feishu are gaining significant ground.