Another veteran from Alibaba leaves

Author | Liu Baodan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

Ye Jun, a veteran of Alibaba who once led the commercialization of DingTalk, has ultimately chosen to leave.

According to Wall Street News, Ye Jun, Vice President of Alibaba Group and former President of DingTalk (alias "Not Poor"), has recently completed the resignation approval process, and his information can no longer be found in Alibaba Group's internal OA system.

In fact, Ye Jun's departure had long been anticipated. In March of this year, DingTalk founder Chen Hang (Wuzhao) officially returned as CEO of DingTalk, while former President Ye Jun was reassigned back to Alibaba Group for other duties. In hindsight, this was merely a transition.

Ye Jun joined Alibaba in 2007 and has held leadership positions in various departments, including Alibaba Software, Cross-Border E-Commerce, Enterprise Intelligence, and Government DingTalk. In 2020, Ye Jun succeeded Chen Hang as CEO of DingTalk, at a time when DingTalk faced the challenge of skyrocketing traffic during the pandemic without profitability. Under these circumstances, he led DingTalk on a path of commercialization exploration.

In November last year, DingTalk announced significant progress in commercialization: the ARR for the first half of the 2025 fiscal year far exceeded $200 million. Ye Jun stated, "In just one year since DingTalk initiated commercialization, the software subscription ARR revenue has already far surpassed $200 million, which signifies that DingTalk's business model has been established."

However, in the face of the AI era, DingTalk's strategic focus is no longer on profitability but on becoming Alibaba Group's enterprise-level AI application entry point for the B-end market, needing to leverage AI to reshape the enterprise office market.

In February of this year, Eddie Wu stated during an Alibaba conference call that if AGI is achieved, the AI-related industry is likely to become the largest industry globally, potentially affecting or replacing about 50% of the current GDP composition. Alibaba's goal is to achieve AGI, and DingTalk will serve as the entry point for enterprise services.

Compared to Alibaba Group's nearly trillion-dollar revenue scale, DingTalk's current revenue scale appears relatively insignificant. Wall Street News has learned from internal sources that DingTalk's next focus is to develop AI flagship products.

With Ye Jun's departure, DingTalk will also enter a new development phase.

In fact, beyond Ye Jun, several other veterans of Alibaba Group have left core positions. In December 2023, Trudy Dai, CEO of Taotian Group, resigned, and Eddie Wu briefly took over as CEO of Taotian Group; a year later, Alibaba integrated domestic and overseas e-commerce, establishing an e-commerce business group led by Jiang Fan as CEO. In March 2024, Yu Yongfu, Chairman of the Local Life Group and CEO of Ele.me, officially stepped down after holding top positions in multiple business segments, having accurately assessed the trends of mobile internet and completely reversed Gaode's market position.

Last month, Alibaba released its annual report for the 2025 fiscal year, with Daniel Zhang, Yu Yongfu, Trudy Dai, Peng Lei, and nine other Alibaba partners stepping down, marking a record number since Alibaba's listing; simultaneously, Jiang Fan replaced Peng Lei and joined the Alibaba Partnership Committee, which is the core power institution of Alibaba.

The major turnover of core executives not only reflects Alibaba's adjustments towards the AI era but also showcases Eddie Wu's personnel strategy of boldly promoting young talent. As early as December 20, 2023, the day Eddie Wu took over as CEO of Taotian Group, he appointed many young key members, including Wu Jia, Chu Duan, and Jia Luo. Internal employees estimate that the new core management team is nearly 10 years younger than the previous one, and all have proven track records Currently, the AI competition is ongoing globally, and Alibaba, which is investing 38 billion in the next three years, is implementing its AI strategy. From AI large models to infrastructure services, and then to the implementation across various industries, Alibaba needs young talents who can take on tough challenges in order to seize opportunities and establish competitive advantages in the rapidly changing AI technology cycle.

On this basis, Alibaba also requires stronger team collaboration capabilities. On May 9th, Eddie Wu posted on the internal forum stating that the group will adopt a saturation investment approach, focusing on several core battles. "These key battles will involve multiple business units participating, leveraging their respective strengths and advantages."

This also raises higher requirements for Alibaba's personnel: each business must comply with the overall strategic arrangements of the group. This is in stark contrast to the approach of encouraging independent market-facing strategies during the "one split into six" restructuring over two years ago.

Ye Jun's departure marks the latest note in the iteration of Alibaba's core executives. Under the strategic tone of "focusing on e-commerce + AI" and "saturation investment to tackle tough challenges," Alibaba is accelerating the reorganization of its team. The ultimate effectiveness of this top-down organizational renewal will be tested in this crucial AI competition that concerns the future