Dingding s CEO Chen Hang: WeChat And Tencent Consume Not Only Personal Life But Also China s Ability To Innovate

(Chinese Version)

Before Dingding is to roll out Version 3.0, Chen Hang, founder of Dingding, sent an internal letter to all Dingding’s employees and responded to some doubts from the outside.

“For a long time, it is believed that Alibaba is not suit to do social networking and Dingding doesn’t have the gene for social networking. We admit that we’ve paid our price in our development when we first entered the industry. However, since we developed Laiwang, the predecessor of Dingding, we’ve already conducted research in thousands of enterprises and co-innovate with over a thousand enterprises. We work and play with them from morning to night and know well their pains and struggles.”

Mr. Chen also pointed out that Dingding knew exactly what pains and struggles Chinese small and mid-sized enterprises were going through after transferring from C-end to B-end Market, saying that:

“There’s no other team more appropriate to develop products for small and mid-sized enterprises than Dingding.”

At the same time, he expressed his wishes, that is:

“Alibaba can take the lead and promote the mobile cloud work style and the new internet way of thinking to over 40 million Chinese small and mid-sized enterprises, help them overtake at the corner facing fiercer international competition. The more welcome we are in small and mid-sized enterprises, the stronger our sense of mission is.”

In addition, he highlighted the importance of Dingding’s work by mentioning the problems in the current work style and way of thinking, saying that:

“Today, we still see lots of enterprise employees who mix their work with their life and use personal entertainment and SNS tools such as WeChat and QQ to work, which not only fragments their work time and consumes their personal life, but also will further undermine the ability to concentrate and innovate of our entire nation and country.”

He also mentioned the significance of Dingding’s DING function:

“With the function DING, the boss can no longer ignore employees’ message and have to give necessary response. The real value Dingding wants to instil in Chinese enterprises is equality.”

At last, Mr. Chen admitted that Dingding took away some of the vested interests in the market and explained why Dingding chose to do so, saying that:

“Well, I believe we do challenge the traditional rules, even unwritten ones, in the B-end market by offering Dingding’s service for free and take away some of the vested interests of relevant parties. I can only say “Sorry for that” and nothing more, because users are always placed as top priority for us. In an era of sharing, altruism and mobile cloud, traditional and old-fashioned business model have to be phased out.”

The following is the internal letter of Chen Hang, edited by TMTpost:

My dear colleagues,

For the past year, I believe both you and me have heard some discussion on Dingding, whether positive or negative. However, I don’t find these different voices annoying at all. Instead, I think these discussions are an inevitable part of our development, and will help us better reflect on ourselves and identify our goal. After all, the road ahead will be tortuous, and we will have to pull through all these doubts, obstacles and struggles to finally stand out.

I agree that Dingding has been running with much controversy in the past year. We might have gone haywire or gone too far and fast before we know. I myself is also afraid if we’ve forgotten why we embarked.

So I want to take this opportunity to not only share with you some of my thoughts before we are to roll out Dingding Version 3.0, but also respond to some different voices that came up recently.

As did many other internet startups, Dingding went through a period of time when we’ve been through so much hardship and even had the idea to just give up. Still, we managed to survive and even upgrade ourselves from Laiwang to Dingding, simply because we refused to admit defeat. Where there's a mind, there's a hope.

We managed to rise from only six employees left, who’ve used up all the bullets, exhausted and desperate, to 180 employees full of vigor today. We managed to make our product a C-terminal one to a B-terminal one. Now, we’ve already had over 1.5 million registered enterprises on our platform. We are like desperate hunters who only wanted to survive but ended up finding a cave full of treasure.

Dingding is more than an APP. Rather, it represents another lifestyle. While over 40 million mid and small-sized Chinese enterprises are still lagged behind in the paper office era and stuck on traditional work style and ways of thinking, some leading enterprises like Alibaba have already been entering the era of mobile cloud. The gap is widening among large-scale enterprises due to the increasing adoption of entirely new work and business style, which not only improves work efficiency, but also creates a new way of thinking.

Today, we still see lots of enterprise employees who mix their work with their life and use personal entertainment and SNS tools such as WeChat and QQ to work, which not only fragments their work time and consumes their personal life, but also will further undermine the ability to concentrate and innovate of our entire nation and country.

Thus, we wish Alibaba to take the lead and promote the mobile cloud work style and the new internet way of thinking to over 40 million Chinese small and mid-sized enterprises, help them overtake at the corner facing fiercer international competition. The more welcome we are in small and mid-sized enterprises, the stronger our sense of mission is.

Our team is highly self-disciplined and can maintain a supernormal speed of development. To the outside world, however, our team might seem too stubborn to stick to our values. Our company was even nicknamed as “Dingding Madhouse”. On the T-shirt of every Dingding employee are the characters “BE CRAZY”. Sometimes, we might run off rails and not abide by rules. However, we always believe in our corporate philosophy, that is, to change the world staring from ourselves.

So it’s natural that people from the outside might misunderstand us, doubt us or even throw harsh words at us. However, we won’t just ignore these different voices. Instead, we would earnestly face them. As you see, we publicly responded to media today to face directly to those doubts and put an end to all those doubts and misunderstandings. We really want to open our hearts and share our thoughts with the outside world.

For a long time, it is believed that Alibaba is not suit to do social networking and Dingding doesn’t have the gene for social networking. We admit that we’ve paid our price in our development when we first entered the industry. However, since we developed Laiwang, the predecessor of Dingding, we’ve already conducted research in thousands of enterprises and co-innovate with over a thousand enterprises. We work and play with them from morning to night and know well their pains and struggles.

This is why we can say for sure that we are second to none in terms of the understanding of Chinese enterprise-level market as well as small and mid-sized enterprises, and that there’s no other team more appropriate to develop products for small and mid-sized enterprises than Dingding.

Users who use Dingding a lot told us that the so-called “Anti-Human” functions such as DING (which allows employees to “compulsively” inform others of important information), Read Status helped maintained quality between the boss and employees, and helped employees to gain control of their work and enjoy more freedom in work.

Another user once told me that after their company adopted Dingding, not only employees can DING boss, the boss can also DING employees. With the function, the boss can no longer ignore employees’ message and have to give necessary response. The real value Dingding wants to instil in Chinese enterprises is equality.

At the same time, we encourage employees to focus on their work because modern people inevitably all have their social identity and have to take on necessary responsibilities, which are also required by their spirit of contract.

At the same time, some people doubt if Dingding is always trying to provoke rivals and undermine industry rules. Well, there is no need to deny this, because Dingding has always been a challenger. We are challenging not only the industry, but also this era. In an age of information explosion, fragmentation and bubbling, one of Dingding’s goal is to help individuals to regain their ability to concentrate and innovate, divide life and work, rebuild a healthy and benign work environment and make life much easier. To challenge the incorrect norms, the authority is the very mission and value of Dingding, to some degree.

But have we really undermined the industry rule? Well, I believe we do challenge the traditional rules, even unwritten ones, in the B-end market by offering Dingding’s service for free and take away some of the vested interests of relevant parties. But I can only say “Sorry for that” and nothing more, because users are always placed as top priority for us. In an era of sharing, altruism and mobile cloud, traditional and old-fashioned business model have to be phased out.

When we look back on the development of Dingding, we must often tell ourselves: Stay true to our mission. We need to both listen to different voices and stay clear-minded and awake. Dingding’s rapid development for the past two years owes much to the positive comments from a large number of Dingding’s users. It is their support that drives us to move forward.

Please be assured that the goal of everything we’ve done in the past is to make our work, life and the world better.

On September, 19th, that is, a week later, we will upgrade Dingding significantly and roll our Dingding Version 3.0. We are still on the road to achieve our mission and achieve our dream. Let us believe in what we’ve always stuck to and stick to what we’ve always believed in.

Chen Hang
September, 12th, 2016

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Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at PAGE TO PAGE), working for TMTpost.