Two of China’s largest online companies have agreed to combine in what will be the country’s largest private market merger, with a potential valuation of as much as $20bn according to people familiar with the matter.

中国两大互联网公司美团网(Meituan)和大众点评网(Dianping)同意合并。这宗合并将成为中国规模最大的非公开上市企业合并交易——知情人士称，潜在估值最高可达200亿美元。

By coming together, Meituan.com and Dianping Holdings will dominate in China’s market for providing everything from movie tickets to discount restaurant coupons and home delivery of food.

美团和大众点评合并后，将主宰中国很大一块市场，业务从电影票到餐厅折扣券和外卖送餐等等。

Meituan, had about 52 per cent of the Rmb77bn ($12.1bn) online-to-offline services market in the first half of the year, according to researcher Analysys International, while restaurant review app Dianping accounted for about 30 per cent.

研究机构易观国际(Analysys International)数据显示，今年上半年，中国“线上到线下”(O2O)服务市场规模为770亿元人民币（合121亿美元），团购网站美团约占其中的52%，餐厅评论网站大众点评约占其中的30%。

The combined group will pose a greater threat to other established players, notably search engine Baidu’s consumer services platform Nuomi. Baidu in June said it would invest Rmb20bn in its Groupon-like site in an effort to make it the number two player in the market by the end of the year.

合并后的新公司将对其他既有同行构成更大威胁，特别是搜索引擎百度(Baidu)旗下的消费者服务平台糯米网(Nuomi)。今年6月百度表示，将向糯米投资200亿元人民币，力图让其在今年年底前变成该市场排名第二的企业。

With Meituan backed by ecommerce giant Alibaba and Dianping by social media and gaming group Tencent, the merger marks a decision to forgo a expensive price and subsidy war and focus on creating scale.

美团的背后是电商巨头阿里巴巴(Alibaba)，大众点评的背后是社交媒体和游戏集团腾讯(Tencent)，此次合并标志着两家公司决定放弃代价高昂的价格与补贴战并关注于打造规模。

Despite the differing sizes and valuations, the tie-up is being billed as one of equals. The two company heads will become co-chief executives of the new company, which will have two head offices, one in Beijing where Meituan is based and one in Shanghai, Dianping’s home.

尽管两家公司规模和估值不同，但双方的合并被称为“对等合并”。两家公司的首席执行官将成为新公司的联席首席执行官，新公司将设立两个总部，一个是美团总部所在地北京，另一个是大众点评总部所在地上海。

The deal will give existing management a significant share of the merged unit. Sequoia Capital Management, which has been an investor both in Meituan and Dianping in almost all of their financing rounds, will be a big beneficiary, along with other stakeholders including Alibaba and Tencent.

这宗交易将让现有管理层在合并后的新公司中占据一大块股份。红杉资本(Sequoia Capital Management)在美团和大众点评两家公司的几乎所有融资回合中都有投资，该公司以及包括阿里巴巴和腾讯在内的其他股东将成为重大受益者。