Meituan Dianping, China’s largest on-demand services provider, plans to re-enter the power bank sharing business, as the loss-making company expands its search for more sources of revenue and boosts user stickiness. The Beijing-based firm will roll out an unspecified number of power bank sharing stations across the country, according to a report on Monday by Chinese tech news portal LatePost, which cited people familiar with the matter. Its new power banks will have the same “Meituan Yellow” colour scheme used in the company’s logo and uniforms of delivery personnel, rather than the white-and-green combination used in 2017, the report said. The company pulled the plug on its power bank sharing scheme in November 2017 just three months after it was launched. Its table-top mobile device chargers were rolled out in cafes and restaurants across a number of cities, including in Shijiazhuang, capital of northern China’s Hebei province, and Qingdao in the eastern province of Shandong. Meituan Dianping abandoned that operation because of “a lack of synergy with its other businesses”, said Wang Huiwen, a senior vice-president at the company, in an open letter published that same month in 2017. Hong Kong-listed Meituan Dianping did not immediately respond to KrASIA’s request for comments on Tuesday. At present, the power bank sharing business in China is dominated by start-up Shenzhen Jiedian Technology, with a market share of 40.5 per cent and more than 107 million users, according to data from iiMedia Research. Its closest competitors are fellow start-ups Xiaodian and Guaishou Chiongdian, with market shares of 23.6 per cent and 20.9 per cent, respectively. The broad popularity of smartphones and mass adoption of mobile payments have helped increase the demand for shared power banks in China over the past few years. Charging stations have become ubiquitous in busy venues like restaurants, shopping malls, libraries and airports, providing relief to many mobile device users in need of a quick charge. China’s Meituan Dianping narrows losses, pushes forward grocery retail initiatives Consumers in the world’s second largest economy can usually pick up a charger without paying any deposits, as most of the power bank sharing companies rent the device to users with a Sesame Credit Score of more than 600 points. Sesame Credit, also known as Zhima Credit, is a private credit scoring and loyalty programme developed by Ant Financial Services, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding. New York-listed Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post . The number of shared power bank users in the Chinese mainland is predicted to reach 305 million by the end of this year, up from 196 million last year, according to an iiMedia report in July. Compared with the bicycle-sharing business, starting a power bank sharing operation can quickly become profitable. Power bank users pay between 14 US cents to US$1 per hour. A typical mobile device charger, which costs as low as US$4, can be used more than 300 times, according to a report from Chinese news outlet RedStar. For more insights into China tech, join our Facebook group, subscribe to our Inside China Tech podcast, and download the comprehensive 2019 China Internet Report . Also roam China Tech City , an interactive digital map at our sister site Abacus .