Alibaba and WeChat duke it out in the war to be China’s Slack

Photo credit: Kris Krug.

Last week, WeChat rolled out its answer to Slack, WeChat Enterprise. But while Slack itself has never had a large presence in China, WeChat isn’t waltzing into this market alone – Alibaba’s DingTalk was there first, and the company isn’t looking to give in easily.

Alibaba today announced that it has partnered with US-based video chat startup Vidyo to amp up its video offerings, with features like giant (100+ people!) video chats and HD screen sharing. Vidyo is no newbie to the field – its technology is used by Google’s Hangouts and Gmail’s video and voice calls, as well as Nintendo’s Wii U.

Two giants

Alibaba’s DingTalk has been active since early 2015, and the company says that it currently has more than 1.5 million companies using the platform. Like Slack or WeChat Enterprise, it has basic workplace features like group chats, individual chats, mobile and desktop apps, and the like.

DingTalk also has a number of unique features like cloud storage, email integrations, and “burn-after-reading” chats that are automatically erased when over. Unlike WeChat Enterprise, which is limited to licensed Chinese businesses, DingTalk can be used by anyone (well, anyone who reads Chinese – there is no English-language client available yet).

WeChat Enterprise also features video chat capabilities, but it is unclear if they are as robust as DingTalk’s.

DingTalk meets video. Photo credit: Vidyo.

Both Tencent and Alibaba have gigantic user bases to leverage for their enterprise offerings. WeChat is already installed on essentially everybody’s smartphone in China, so the company isn’t trying to build an audience from scratch. Likewise, just try finding a Chinese company that doesn’t have a close relationship with Alibaba, whether through sales, cloud tech, or a dozen other fields.

But DingTalk’s biggest advantage is likely its early-mover position. Especially in the world of enterprise chat, this is a huge deal – just try telling your entire company that they should switch from a system they’ve grown accustomed to, to a new one.

Companies, especially big ones, need to be persuaded into adopting new tech like enterprise chat apps – and this year, both Alibaba and Tencent seem determined to convert as many Chinese companies as possible.