Meituan-Dianping, China's largest provider of on-demand services, has bought bike-sharing company Mobike.

People ride Mobike bicycles. [File photo: China Plus]

This will expand Meituan's business operations, which include group buying, food delivery and - just recently - ride hailing.

Business news website yicai.com reports the acquisition concluded April 3, 2018, with Meituan paying 2.7 billion US dollars.

A report by business publication Caixin suggests the deal has been brokered by Pony Ma, CEO of Tencent, which is a shareholder in both Meituan and Mobike.

The acquisition comes after e-commerce giant Alibaba took over online food ordering platform Ele.me, Meituan's major competitor, for 9.5 billion US dollars a day earlier.

Mobike founder Hu Weiwei has put a post on social media early Wednesday saying both Mobike and Meituan share the same vision for people to live better, suggesting the deal is a new beginning.

In a separate post, Wang Xing, founder and CEO of Meituan, has praised Mobike for its innovation and social value, saying the two companies will create a brighter future together.

Meituan entered into a strategic partnership with Mobike in 2016. Last September, Mobike embedded its service into the Meituan app so that users can log into the Mobike service through the Meituan app.