The CEO of Chinese tech giant Alibaba's entertainment division fines his staff if they look at their phones during meetings – a little nugget he revealed during a speech that included insults sprayed at both colleagues and customers.
The December 6 speech by Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group CEO Fan Luyuan was delivered at a ceremony honoring employees who have spent five years at a subsidiary called Lingxi Interactive. Fan allegedly went off topic, though – way off topic. He chastised the Lingxi team for lacking alignment with Alibaba's corporate culture, demanded the team's performance surpass rivals Tencent and NetEase, and then tossed in his penchant for fining staff who use their phones during meetings.
He didn't stop there. He also allegedly devoted a significant chunk of his speech to criticizing the head of Lingxi, Zhou Bingshu, calling him inexperienced and lacking vision, and aired other personal grievances. He also allegedly suggested the gaming division should be more grateful that Alibaba acquired and "saved" it.
Fan's remarks leaked to social media, went viral, and were not received well.
He apologized the next day, with a post to the corp's internal network. A copy was acquired by media outlet Technode and reported on by Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post.
According to the reports and document, Fan claimed he had intended to "be casual" and "liven up the atmosphere" but went too far.
"I have a straightforward personality, I am carefree, I like to joke, and sometimes I don't know how to control the scale, so I have been criticized for this for many years," Fan reportedly wrote.
According to the document, Fan conceded that many of his words had been inappropriate and that he was sorry. He then offered up three months of his own salary to go toward team building for the Lingxi staff.
He is not the first Chinese tech leader to present as demanding and authoritarian. Earlier this year, Baidu's PR head found herself in a PR nightmare for creating a toxic work environment and demanding workaholicism.
Some orgs in China's competitive tech industry advocate a "996" lifestyle that sees employees work from 9AM to 9PM, six days a week.
For Fan, his comments represent a cultural clash – between harsh authoritarian leadership and the creative autonomy often valued in the gaming industry.
Lingxi is best known for the mobile game Three Kingdoms released in 2019. Zhou is credited with contributing to the game's overall direction and development. ®