Text/Ji De

Editor/Ziye

Chen Hang (Wu Zhao), the product-obsessed founder of DingTalk once known as "the madman," is set to reclaim his throne after a four-year hiatus from Alibaba.

Wired Insight has learned that Alibaba Group intends to acquire the investor shares in Two Hydrogen and One Oxygen, a venture founded by Chen Hang (Wu Zhao). Upon completion of the transaction, Wu Zhao will resume his role as CEO of DingTalk within Alibaba Group.

Wu Zhao is the heart and soul of DingTalk, having steered it from conception to success. However, in the dynamic world of business, no one reigns forever. In 2020, strategic differences led Wu Zhao to part ways with Alibaba to pursue his own ventures. His successor, Ye Jun, spent the next three years transforming DingTalk from a "scale-focused" platform to one that prioritizes "healthy profitability." Today, DingTalk boasts 700 million users and 5,600 ecological partners, making it a super platform.

Just as people thought the story had reached its conclusion, Alibaba has brought back this seasoned veteran. This is not only the most significant personnel change in Alibaba's To B business line in recent years but also a strategic move of utmost importance in the AI era.

DingTalk founder Wu Zhao, image source: DingTalk official account

Alibaba stands at a pivotal juncture in 2025. Since the beginning of the year, its Hong Kong stock price has surged by over 65%. Among the various growth drivers, the AI business stands out as the most influential. When Alibaba announced a RMB 100 billion investment in AI two months ago, the market responded enthusiastically with a 14% surge in a single day.

However, mere investment is insufficient. The Tongyi large model requires practical applications, and the enterprise services business urgently needs an AI transformation. With 700 million users, DingTalk must evolve from a collaboration platform into a genuine AI intelligence hub.

This could be the primary reason behind Alibaba's decision to recall Wu Zhao. On one hand, acquiring his startup reserves key combat capabilities for the impending AI battle. On the other hand, Wu Zhao's penchant for creating groundbreaking applications in his "mad" mode makes him the ideal candidate to spearhead DingTalk's AI breakthrough.

Can this returning trailblazer lead DingTalk to new miracles?

1. Why Does DingTalk Need Wu Zhao to Return?

Wu Zhao's departure and return mirror changes in Alibaba's strategic focus.

In DingTalk's early days, Wu Zhao's relentless pursuit of product excellence was pivotal to its success. In 2015, after the "Laiwang" project stumbled, he astutely identified a gap in the enterprise service market and led his team to develop innovative features like Ding messages and intelligent approvals.

He believes that innovation is not about imitation but about discovering unique value. This meticulous attention to detail and almost paranoid innovative spirit earned his team the nickname "DingTalk Insane Asylum" and solidified DingTalk's position in the collaborative office space.

2020 marked a turning point in DingTalk's journey. This year, DingTalk not only achieved a user base of over 300 million and served more than 15 million enterprises but also underwent significant changes due to Alibaba's "Cloud + DingTalk" strategy.

As DingTalk fully integrated into the Alibaba Cloud system, its focus shifted to serving major clients. Founder Wu Zhao was subsequently transferred to the group to serve as a special assistant to CEO Daniel Zhang.

This position within Alibaba often signals a transitional phase, but a year later, Wu Zhao did not transition to new businesses; instead, he chose to leave to start his own venture, taking core members like Ren Qing (former Alibaba DingTalk VP), Gan Cong (former Alibaba DingTalk Marketing Head), and Zhu Hong (former Alibaba DingTalk Chief Architect and CTO) with him.

For Wu Zhao, who is committed to "serving a massive number of small and micro-enterprises," DingTalk's shift to focus on KA clients represented a paradigm shift, making his departure understandable.

After founding "Two Hydrogen and One Oxygen," Wu Zhao's ties with Alibaba were not severed. Two Hydrogen and One Oxygen is located in Building 9 of Haizhi Mansion, just a stone's throw away from DingTalk's Building 5.

His startup quickly secured investment from Vision Capital, whose founder is Wu Yongming, the current CEO of Alibaba. The two have a long history: in 2010, Wu Zhao returned to Alibaba to oversee Taobao search, and in 2015, he founded DingTalk, with both milestones receiving support from Wu Yongming.

Dramatically, in 2023, Alibaba's strategy shifted again, and the "Cloud + DingTalk" strategy did not last long.

With the initiation of the "1+6+N" organizational transformation, the group was divided into multiple independent business units. DingTalk was spun off from Alibaba Cloud to become an independent business unit within the "N," no longer directly managed by Alibaba Cloud. DingTalk's independence also marked the end of the "Cloud + DingTalk" strategy at this stage.

Image source: Alibaba Group official website

Around the same time, rumors of Wu Zhao's return began to surface. His keynote speech at the 2023 DingTalk Ecosystem Conference fueled speculation that the "father of DingTalk" might soon reclaim his throne.

After Wu Yongming officially took over as CEO of Alibaba in 2024, he established a new strategy of "user-first, AI-driven." To strengthen its AI focus, Alibaba launched the AI flagship application "New Quark" in the C-end market, while DingTalk was clearly identified as Alibaba's most crucial AI application asset in the To B field.

At this juncture, DingTalk must face the critical challenge of transforming from a collaboration tool to an AI agent platform. Wu Zhao's expertise in low-code and open ecology, coupled with his deep understanding of SME needs, aligns perfectly with this trend.

For Wu Yongming, Wu Zhao's return is not just about DingTalk's future but also a significant step in Alibaba's overall AI strategy. In the context of "younger executives," Alibaba needs pragmatic leaders who can grasp the group's strategy and break through the innovation bottleneck of large companies. Wu Zhao fits this mold perfectly—he can refine products with "madman"-like dedication and adeptly translate cutting-edge technology into commercial solutions.

Four years later, the return of this "veteran general" could be the key to DingTalk's breakthrough in the AI era.

2. To Help Alibaba Fight Hard AI Battles, DingTalk Cannot Lose

As the AI wave sweeps the globe, DingTalk has emerged as the core battlefield in Alibaba's AI strategy. Over the past two years, this enterprise service platform with 700 million users has undergone a profound intelligent transformation.

DingTalk's AI transformation began in April 2023 with the integration of the Tongyi Qianwen large model. Currently, DingTalk and Alibaba Cloud are collaborating to embed large model capabilities into high-frequency work scenarios.

For instance, users can activate over ten AI capabilities in scenarios like documents, meetings, and approvals through simple "/" slash commands, making AI an integral part of the workflow.

2024 became a pivotal year for DingTalk's AI development. With domestic large models like DeepSeek breaking through long-text understanding and complex reasoning capabilities, the commercialization prospects for AI Agents (intelligent agents) suddenly became clear.

Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI, predicted at Davos that AI can now think and solve problems like humans, and AI Agents will serve as "employees" in fields such as software development, laboratory research, and customer service.

Wu Yongming also emphasized that the greatest value of generative AI lies in reconstructing enterprise productivity through AI Agents.

DingTalk swiftly responded to this trend by launching the "AI Assistant" platform, covering high-demand scenarios like work order processing and legal review. Enterprises can also customize exclusive intelligent agents with zero code to meet individual needs.

In terms of technical routes, DingTalk has adopted an open strategy. It not only integrates Alibaba's self-developed Tongyi but also connects with multiple leading models, including DeepSeek, Zhipu AI, MiniMax, and Dark Side of the Moon, internally dubbed "collecting the seven dragon balls."

This diverse model architecture allows enterprises to freely combine AI capabilities according to their needs. For example, educational institutions preferring long-text understanding can utilize the Dark Side of the Moon model. This has attracted a large number of developers who can reach customers through the DingTalk platform. As of mid-2024, the platform had gathered over 500,000 enterprise-built intelligent agents.

DingTalk's core advantage lies in its rich application scenarios and massive user data.

It processes over 1 billion messages daily, and frequently used enterprise functions such as attendance, approval, and document collaboration provide natural landing scenarios for AI technology. The accumulated massive enterprise behavior data can be fed back into model training through Alibaba Cloud's RAG technology (Retrieval Augmented Generation).

Image source: DingTalk official website

However, DingTalk's competitors are also making strides. Feishu has integrated AI capabilities into multiple products, including content creation, content summarization, and data analysis, and has opened up access to multiple leading models. Recently, on a Feishu advertising wall at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, the logos of nine domestic leading large model companies like DeepSeek, MiniMax, and Dark Side of the Moon were prominently displayed.

Faced with fierce competition, DingTalk has upped the ante.

In March 2025, DingTalk launched the "AI Innovation Nth Power Plan," accelerating the construction of the AI ecosystem with highly attractive support policies. The plan offers "three exemptions and four supports"—exempting developer commissions, deposits, and computing power fees, while providing comprehensive support in brand promotion, sales channels, technical assistance, and investment matching.

Wang Ming, vice president of DingTalk, even promised "money when needed, resources when needed, customers when needed," demonstrating the group's commitment to building an AI ecosystem.

As the sole entry point for Alibaba's AI + To B scenarios, DingTalk enjoys unequivocal support from the Alibaba Group. Wu Yongming stated, "Another crucial To B asset of the group is DingTalk. We believe there will be ample opportunities to reshape internal collaboration and synergy scenarios in enterprises with AI. DingTalk is our most significant AI application in the To B field."

From unprecedented support for developers to the return of core talents like Wu Zhao, DingTalk is embracing new development opportunities.

In Alibaba's AI strategic landscape, DingTalk has become indispensable due to its unique value in bridging technology and business. This super entry point not only holds the future of Alibaba's To B business but also shoulders the critical task of driving the implementation of the entire group's AI strategy.

(The header image of this article is sourced from the DingTalk official account.)