Alibaba Group has announced that Chen Hang (nickname Wuzhao) is stepping down as CEO of DingTalk, the company's workplace messaging app. He will be replaced by Chen Yusen, born in 1992, who previously led the internal AI agent project MuleRun within Alibaba Cloud. The decision came just days after the group's partnership committee responded on June 10 to a controversial internal essay titled "Inside DingTalk," in which a former employee detailed the app's high-pressure management style, saying it "is not what Alibaba culture should look like."
Chen Hang returned to DingTalk in 2025 and revived the aggressive management tactics from his early startup days to push an AI transformation. Employees' essay accused him of enforcing strict attendance policies and conducting late-night check-ins. Alibaba's partnership committee emphasized in its response that "progress cannot be made at the expense of employees or by suppressing culture."
The incoming CEO, Chen Yusen, is a serial entrepreneur with a technical background. At 22, he co-founded Chaitin Tech, a cybersecurity firm that was later acquired by Alibaba Cloud. After joining Alibaba Group, he launched the MuleRun AI agent project within Alibaba Cloud in 2025, positioning him as a key rising manager in the group's talent pipeline.