1) So China's version of the office communication software war is between DingTalk (of Alibaba) and Lark (of Bytedance).
WeChat Enterprise has pivoted to become a retailer focused B2B2C coms tool.
I've heard good things about Lark but think DingTalk will win the market
WeChat Enterprise has pivoted to become a retailer focused B2B2C coms tool.
I've heard good things about Lark but think DingTalk will win the market
2) Both gained traction during Covid lockdown but DingTalk's adoption is way ahead. In Nov 2020, according to Caixin, DingTalk's MAU was 173 million while Lark had 1.5 million MAU.
DingTalk was prolific and latched on to schools and service sector early.
DingTalk was prolific and latched on to schools and service sector early.
3) Both are software created for internal need. Given Chinese tech's love of making a cost centre into a revenue line, both were then offered to the market for free.
The interesting thing about internal software, is that they mirror the originator's organisational culture
The interesting thing about internal software, is that they mirror the originator's organisational culture
4) DingTalk has gone for a very top-down hierachial play. Employees punch in daily (yes, they have to sign in before a certain time), go through facial recognition software to prove it's them. Have geo-locate turned out if they took a sick day at the office.
5) You can see whether a message was read, whether homework is accessed, there's a 'ding' noise everytime the notification goes off.
Not every office have these functionalities all turned on. And some offices do.
But the functionalities are there. For every office.
Not every office have these functionalities all turned on. And some offices do.
But the functionalities are there. For every office.
6) The features set pissed off Chinese students so much, they co-ordinated a massive review spree on the App store to get DingTalk delisted in early 2020.
All this is to say, DingTalk is a necessary evil.
qz.com/1814937/what-i…
All this is to say, DingTalk is a necessary evil.
qz.com/1814937/what-i…
7) Lark on the other hand, have the halo of being imbued with Bytedance's hyper efficient culture. It's a mis-mash of Slack, Zoom and Notion with never ending internal tooling for department communication.
People seem to like it. Or at least, they prefer it over DingTalk.
People seem to like it. Or at least, they prefer it over DingTalk.
8) So while Lark might have a superior product (and both products are free rn), I think DingTalk is still going to do better because
1) It's control structure appeals to the buyer aka head of organisation
2) Workflow tooling is a culture practice that not all Chinese firms adopt
1) It's control structure appeals to the buyer aka head of organisation
2) Workflow tooling is a culture practice that not all Chinese firms adopt
9) And last but not least - most firms still use Wechat as the default office communication tool, so inertia is high for bottom-up adoption.
Another race of adoption would be whether each can get an app ecosystem around them, and that one is beginning.
Another race of adoption would be whether each can get an app ecosystem around them, and that one is beginning.
I wrote more about Chinese cloud here (also part three which is paywalled does talk a bit about Ali's ecosystem play but not extensively. Piece for another time)
https://twitter.com/lillianmli/status/1398269118374088708
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