Alibaba's reach into online finance, Internet commerce, streaming movies, and gaming just expanded to include mobile apps.

China's independent mobile application distribution platform SnapPea announced that the company has signed an acquisition agreement with Alibaba and its app distribution business will merge into Alibaba's mobile business unit.

The joining of SnapPea will help Alibaba mobile expand its app distribution market share and further improve Alibaba mobile's market layout. Financial terms fo the deal were not immediately available.

According to Alibaba mobile, SnapPea's mobile distribution business will maintain independent development after merging with Alibaba.

Yu Yongfu, president of Alibaba's mobile business unit, told local media that SnapPea is a well-received brand among Chinese users and it attaches great importance to user experience. It can help Alibaba mobile expand market share in the app distribution sector. In the future, the two parties will work together in big data and content areas.

SnapPea was initially launched in April 2010 and it is one of the first star products incubated by Innovation Works led by Kai-fu Lee. It is also one of the first third-party Android app markets in China and it has been installed over 500 million times.

In 2015, nearly half of Samsung smartphone users and one-quarter of Xiaomi and Huawei smartphone users used SnapPea. Meanwhile, over 80 software and hardware manufacturers, including Meizu, Xiaomi, Sogou, and APPSolution, used SnapPea's app and gaming contents.