(Yicai Global) Dec. 15 -- The mobile application of Mobike, one of China's earliest and largest bike-sharing providers, went offline at midnight after an acquisition by takeout and online deals giant Meituan almost three years ago.

The Mobike app and the related WeChat mini-program will cease operations today so users can switch to Meituan to continue booking bikes with their restored account balances, according to an announcement posted on the platform yesterday.

Founded in 2015, Mobike was acquired by Meituan for USD2.7 billion in April 2018. In January 2019, Wang Huiwen, co-founder and senior vice president of Meituan, said in an internal letter to employees that Mobike will be renamed Meituan Bike and that the firm will become a unit of the new parent's location-based service department.

In September, Mobike started swiftly replacing its fleet with Meituan-branded yellow bicycles. Now it is rare to see an orange Mobike on the streets of Shanghai.

Mobike had more than 232 million registered users and 6.2 million bicycles in 200 cities around the world as of April 30, 2018, according to the prospectus submitted by Beijing-based Meituan to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Editor: Emmi Laine