Alibaba executive apologizes after controversial speech to Lingxi · TechNode

On Saturday, Alibaba Partner and Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group CEO Fan Luyuan issued an apology on the company’s internal network after a speech he delivered on December 6 sparked controversy, saying his words were intended to liven up the atmosphere during the internal talk. 

On December 6, Alibaba-owned gaming brand Lingxi Interactive held a ceremony for employees who had served at the company for five years. Instead of offering congratulations, a leaked meeting memo of the CEO’s speech showed him criticizing the Lingxi team for not following Alibaba’s corporate culture and also saw him demanding that Lingxi surpass Tencent and NetEase.

In his apology, Fan added that he regretted the tone he had taken, which he said had hurt employees’ feelings. Fan said he will reflect further on his actions, and spend three months’ worth of his salary on team building for Lingxi Interactive.

Why it matters: This internal speech caused a stir online, with commenters questioning whether Fan could truly motivate his staff this way. Some of the leaked speech content sounded disrespectful, a number of commentators suggested.

Details: Online comments on Chinese social platform Weibo described Fan’s speech as very “fatherly” (爹味) in tone, suggesting he was being condescending, overbearing, and controlling. A tech blogger, Lan Xi, posted a summary of Fan’s speech on Weibo.

• “Regarding Lingxi, I believe it never embodied Alibaba’s bloodline from the start. The management did not fully embrace Alibaba’s culture, and their values and mission did not align with Alibaba’s vision,” Fan said during the internal meeting, according to Lan Xu’s summary.
• The Weibo post highlighted a particular part of Fan’s speech that sparked significant controversy: “Stop looking at your phones and pay attention. This is exactly the bad habit of disrespecting Alibaba’s culture that you’ve developed. You should know that if anyone looks at their phone during my meetings, the team leader and group leader will each be fined RMB 500 ($68). Today, the most important people are here, the ones who decide your fate. What good does looking at your phones do?”
• Another reported comment of Fan’s saw him calling out specific individuals:  “Every year, I have whipped Zhou Bingshu [a game producer of Lingxi] into action. If he doesn’t move forward, I whip him. If he still doesn’t move, we’ll have to find ten more Zhou Bingshus.”
• “Which of your games has an annual revenue exceeding RMB 1 billion or RMB 1.5 billion [$140 million or $210 million]?” Fan reportedly asked. “If Alibaba hadn’t acquired Jianyue [the previous name of Lingxi Interactive], it would have definitely gone bankrupt and amounted to nothing. That’s why I say people should be grateful.”
• Fan has high expectations for Lingxi, aiming for it to become the third-largest gaming company in China, behind Tencent and NetEase, within the next eight years, according to local media outlet Jiemian.

Context: Alibaba culture is officially all about putting the customer first, teamwork, embracing change, integrity, passion, dedication, and having a results-oriented mindset. But Fan’s comments come at a time when there has been pushback against a perceived pervasive overwork culture in the Chinese tech sector, typified by practices such as 996. 

• Fan Luyuan joined the third-party online payment platform Alipay in 2007 and launched the internet finance product Yu’ebao in 2013, according to Baidu Baike, a leading Chinese online encyclopedia. He joined Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Group in August 2017, serving as Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Pictures, and also as President of the video platform Youku. In March 2023, he became CEO of Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Group. Starting in January 2024, he has represented Alibaba in overseeing Lingxi Interactive.

• Since its launch in 2019, Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition has become Lingxi’s most iconic game. In 2023, the game topped China’s simulation game revenue charts, and reached 100 million players worldwide by June 2024, Jiemian reported on Dec. 6. Another Lingxi gaming title, Ashes of the Kingdom, has achieved four million pre-registrations since its August launch in 2024.

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