According to Techcrunch, Meituan Dianping from China, valued at 30 billion US dollars, is buying bike-sharing company Mobike. The purchase price is expected to be US$ 2.7 billion. Mobike describes itself as the world’s first cashless and stationless sharing platform that solves the problem of short-haul connections in cities.

Thanks to a patented bicycle design, an intelligent lock system and its smartphone app, bicycles in many cities can be booked and unlocked for travel with a few clicks from a mobile phone. Founded by Beijing Mobike Technology Co from Beijing, the Chinese are pursuing our cities with bikesharing to make them more livable, environmentally friendly and social.

The president and co-founder of Mobike Hu Weiwei reportedly posted a WeChat message with the telling “a new beginning”. The South China Morning Post then confirmed the news that the CEO Wang Xing of the buyer Meituan had let the cat out of the bag. “We are building a new future together with Mobike.” The company is reported to continue to exist with an independent brand and management team. “We believe that bringing Mobike’s resources to our platform is an important step in providing an even better service to our customers – they should not only’eat better’ but also ‘to live better'”.

What does the merger mean for our cities?

Meituan Dianping is a platform with 320 million customers in China, better known as a provider of food deliveries with its own e-bikes. As a further component of its platform offering, Meituan Dianping connects local retailers with its customers on O20. Meituan Dianping emerged in 2015 from the merger of the two largest Groupon clones in China. Prospective buyers are aggregated here in order to achieve better purchasing conditions together.

Investors pumped 4 billion US dollars into the company for further international expansion. Meituan Dianping has recently focused increasingly on transport services. One example is the roll-out of Ride-Hailing Services for vehicles last month in Shanghai.

In Berlin the new partner Mobike offers approx. 9000 bikes for bike-sharing. Here you are in competition with the bike-sharing offers Lidl, nextbike or the bikes of the Deutsche Bahn. Together we will create a global giant in the sharing sector and we are sure that we will also see the sharing offers of Meituan Dianping / Mobike in other cities. Successful urban concepts today include bikesharing offers; a welcome means of transport for both residents and tourists in the cities as a replacement for the car.

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