DingTalk VP Ma Ruila Resigns, Questioning Product Direction and Culture
Ma Ruila, Vice President of Alibaba’s workplace communication platform DingTalk and head of AI products, has resigned after three years with the company, publicly questioning whether the team was creating innovative products or merely chasing industry trends. His departure, announced on June 8 via a personal WeChat public account article titled “Outside Ding” (置身钉外), marks a significant leadership shakeup at one of China’s largest enterprise software companies.
A Resignation Amid Internal Turmoil
Ma completed his resignation procedures on May 15, 2026, but his public statement came one week after a 75,000-character internal post by former DingTalk product manager Teng Yaxin (known by her alias “Yousu”) titled “Inside Ding” (置身钉内) went viral across the Chinese internet, as The Paper reported. Teng’s detailed account of the failure of DingTalk’s flagship AI project “ONE” — and the intense workplace pressure surrounding it — struck a nerve with millions of Chinese workers.
In his departure statement, Ma expressed deep empathy for Teng’s experience. “It took me three hours to read the entire text, and I still couldn’t calm down for a long time,” he wrote. “I just felt heartache — that kind of high pressure, that kind of effort without results, that cycle of frequent reporting, rapid iteration, and no improvement — I know it.”
Ma also questioned Alibaba’s corporate value of “Customer First, Employee Second,” asking: “When an organization enters an extremely high-pressure state, what does ‘Employee Second’ really mean? Does it mean employees are ranked second, or that employees must always make concessions from the second position?”
The Failed “ONE” Project
The “ONE” project was DingTalk’s flagship AI initiative, launched with DingTalk 8.0 in August 2025. Conceived by founder Chen Hang (known by his alias “Wuzhao”), who returned as CEO in March 2025 after a four-year absence, ONE aimed to create an AI-driven work information feed where “tasks find people.” However, as Phoenix Tech reported, the project ultimately failed due to product-market fit issues, organizational conflicts, and a high-pressure management culture.
Key design decisions proved controversial. An auto-read feature that marked messages as “read” without user consent eliminated employees’ buffer time to formulate responses. A “Discovery” module forced learning content that users perceived as intrusive advertising. Most notably, Chen Hang reportedly directed the team to serve “bosses, managers, and high-net-worth individuals” rather than frontline workers — a decision that DoNews analysis highlighted as emblematic of DingTalk’s fundamental product philosophy conflict.
Teng’s post documented the human toll: she collapsed twice during the ONE project, once requiring an ambulance. The “Wangshu Action” — a competition where DingTalk employees were required to stay at work later than counterparts at rival Feishu (Lark) — became a symbol of the organization’s intense pressure culture.
Ma Ruila’s Journey: From Entrepreneur to Alibaba Executive
Ma Ruila (real name Wang Jiamin) is a veteran Chinese internet entrepreneur. He founded Chinese Music Star, the Interconnected Film Database (predecessor to Mtime), and a map-based real estate platform before launching wolai (我来) in 2020 — a Notion-like collaborative office platform that DingTalk acquired in 2023, as detailed in NetEase’s coverage.
At DingTalk, Ma led AI product development and later became head of user product experience for “Wukong” (悟空), Alibaba’s enterprise AI platform named after the Monkey King. Wukong is a cornerstone of Alibaba’s AI strategy, housed within the Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) business group established in March 2026 under CEO Wu Yongming.
Broader Implications for Alibaba’s AI Strategy
Ma’s departure comes at a critical juncture. Wukong, positioned as Alibaba’s enterprise AI platform capable of document editing, spreadsheet updates, meeting transcription, and multi-agent workflows, is transitioning from product definition to organizational delivery. The loss of a senior product leader who brought unique product thinking from his entrepreneurial background raises questions about execution.
DingTalk faces intensifying competition. While it remains China’s largest enterprise communication platform with 8 billion registered users and 26 million enterprise organizations, holding a 32.7% market share, rival Feishu — with less than 15% of DingTalk’s user base — generated over 2.1 billion RMB in subscription revenue in 2024, approximately 70% of DingTalk’s ~3 billion RMB. Globally, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini Enterprise are setting the pace for enterprise AI.
What’s Next
DingTalk has not officially responded to either Teng Yaxin’s post or Ma Ruila’s resignation. Ma has returned to Shanghai to start a new venture, though details remain unclear. In his parting words, he expressed hope that Chen Hang “can lead DingTalk to regain its glory,” while also posing a question that resonates beyond any single company: “If I have to sacrifice all of my life to realize a company’s ideals, then what right do I have to paint a picture of AI changing the world?”
The “Inside Ding” phenomenon has sparked a national conversation about workplace culture in China’s tech industry — the tension between management control and employee wellbeing, and the role of software tools in amplifying that tension. How DingTalk and Alibaba respond may shape not just the company’s AI ambitions, but the broader direction of China’s enterprise technology sector.