Alibaba is acquiring cross-border ecommerce startup HHO, paving the way for founder Chen Hang to return as CEO of DingTalk. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Chen launched DingTalk in 2015 and grew it into China’s largest enterprise collaboration app, now with over 700 million users and more than 10 million daily AI calls. He left Alibaba in 2021 after disagreements over a push to fold DingTalk into Alibaba Cloud—an approach he felt conflicted with DingTalk’s mission to serve SMEs.

His return comes as Alibaba sharpens its focus on product-led growth under CEO Eddie Wu. In March, the company launched New Quark, an AI-powered consumer app, signaling a broader pivot toward “user-first, AI-driven” development.