Since December 2014, DingTalk, Alibaba’s workplace communication software, has grown exponentially to become the world’s largest chat service for companies, with 100 million users and 7 million employers across China.
But its rapid rise — propelled by a promise to boost productivity through monitoring of employee movements — has sparked a backlash from workers who say the app fuels an unhealthy work culture. Records from it have been used by companies as evidence to fire employees and dock pay, according to labour lawsuits. DingTalk lets senders see if recipients have read messages, and also has a ‘ding’ feature that can bombard recipients with repeat notifications, text messages and phone-call reminders. Its functions include automatic expense claims, a clock-in system to monitor whereabouts of employees, and a ‘daily report’ for workers to list completed tasks.
Many Chinese workers have vented frustration online, saying the service destroys trust. Li Xiaoyang, a sales agent, had to use DingTalk’s geo-location function at his previous firm when he met a client, and use a face scanner to verify he was attending meetings. “I felt so disgusted,” he said. “They would ding you on holiday and you can’t pretend you didn’t see it.”
DingTalk’s chief executive Wu Zhao said the service was a solution to a common managerial complaint in China: workers fail to reply to messages and later feign ignorance. Wu is aware of the backlash DingTalk is facing, but says the problem is a “toxic work culture at some companies” and misuse by some employers. “The tool itself is not the problem; the way it is used is the problem,” he said.
It’s this criticism that could hobble Ding’s plans to expand into the West. Chen Bikui, a partner at Liuhe Ventures, said he doubts whether DingTalk would succeed abroad, citing privacy concerns. “DingTalk is so much tailored to Chinese companies, it would be hard for it to be adopted by companies from other countries,” he said.
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