Alibaba Partnership Committee Directly Rebukes DingTalk Management After Viral Resignation Essay

Alibaba's Partnership Committee has taken the extraordinary step of directly rebuking the management practices within its own enterprise collaboration subsidiary, DingTalk, following a former employee's viral resignation essay that laid bare deep cultural problems inside the organization. On June 10, the committee circulated an internal memo titled "Loyalty and Growth: That's Alibaba Culture," responding to an explosive resignation post written by a former DingTalk product manager. The essay, titled "Inside DingTalk," chronicled the manager's experience working on DingTalk's flagship AI product "ONE" (Project O) — an AI-powered work information stream launched as part of DingTalk 8.0 and positioned as the platform's core AI transformation initiative. The author joined DingTalk in June 2025 and described how the product, after its launch, faced shifting internal priorities and mounting pressure from leadership. The essay quickly went viral across Chinese social media, sparking widespread discussion about management culture at one of China's most prominent enterprise software companies. The Partnership Committee's response was unusually direct. It stated that the management practices described in the essay "have never been the direction Alibaba's culture advocates," insisting that "mutual respect, treating people as people, loyalty and righteousness" form the foundation of Alibaba's corporate culture. The memo also weighed in on leadership philosophy, declaring that innovation in the AI era depends on "employee passion and creativity," not on "pressure and mechanical execution." It emphasized that managers bear responsibility for articulating vision, proactively owning accountability, and uniting and motivating their teams. The controversy has drawn renewed attention to DingTalk's leadership structure. Chen Hang (alias Wuzhao), DingTalk's founder, returned as CEO in April 2025, replacing Ye Jun. DingTalk's former Vice President Ma Ruila also published an essay titled "Outside DingTalk" reflecting on his departure from the company. This marks a rare instance of Alibaba's Partnership Committee — the highest-level governance body within the company — publicly commenting on the management culture of a specific business unit. The intervention signals growing concern at the group level about DingTalk's internal dynamics as the company navigates its high-stakes pivot toward AI-powered enterprise services.