Bike-sharing company, Mobike, purchased by Meituan

Meituan has entered into an agreement to acquire Mobike, one of the largest smart bike-sharing companies.

The acquisition will enhance Meituan’s transportation solutions with the addition of bike-sharing to their pre-existing ride-hailing and car-sharing services.

Xing Wang, CEO and Founder of Meituan, stated: “Mobike has created unique value for its customers in their daily commute. Mobike is not only a pioneer of the smart bike-sharing sector but they are also extending their successful model of Chinese innovation to the overseas markets. We believe that by bringing in Mobike’s resources and expertise to our platform, we further complement our comprehensive local life service platform to help our customers not only ‘Eat Better’ but also ‘Live Better’.”

Mobike will continue to innovate and operate as its own brand.

Davis Wang, CEO and co-Founder of Mobike, said: “Our mission is to provide an affordable means of shared transportation for convenient short urban trips while reducing congestion and the carbon footprint of cities. Our goal is to enhance the quality of life in the communities where we operate, which syncs well with Meituan’s mission. We are excited to bring our convenient, enjoyable and affordable bike-sharing platform to more users.”

Mobike’s bike-sharing service will be the latest offering from Meituan’s recently launched range of transportation services that focuses on exploring and developing innovative local commute solutions including ride-hailing, car-sharing and autonomous vehicles.

Data analytics from Meituan’s 320 million active customers revealed that most users seek out transportation services to get to and from restaurants and other local lifestyle points-of-interest. Following a successful pilot launch in Nanjing in 2017, a recent rollout of ride-hailing services in Shanghai served more than 2.2 million passengers in the first week and 40 per cent of these rides were to restaurants and other local life services.

The addition of Mobike’s bike-sharing technology and service to Meituan’s one-stop service platform will allow the company to efficiently address the large-scale and frequent demands of its customers during their daily commutes, especially for short-distance travel needs.

Mobike’s founding and core team – CEO Davis Wang, President Weiwei Hu and CTO Joe Xia – will continue to lead the business with Xing Wang becoming Chairman of Mobike.