Google Inc, the U.S.-based Internet giant, is talking with the Chinese government and handset producers based in the Chinese mainland about establishing a new app store for Android smartphones in the market, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Separately, a report from U.S.-based technology portal The Information said that the company hopes a special China version of its Google Play Android mobile app store could be launched as early as this fall, a move that would mark the company's return to the mainland.
Google needs to expand its market in China since the services launched by the company in recent years have not generated business growth and its Internet services have begun to decline, Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research, told the Global Times Saturday.
The Chinese market holds strong appeal for the company for having the largest group of Google-backed Android users in the world, Zhang said.
Google declined to comment when contacted by the Global Times on Saturday.
In 2010, Google ended its engineering operations in the mainland and moved its Chinese-language search engine to a Hong Kong-based Web domain. The company made these moves because it did not wish to comply with mainland authorities' requests to censor its services, which were allegedly vulnerable to hacking.
Many Google services such as its social networking platform Google+ and Gmail e-mail remain unavailable in the mainland.
If the Google Play app store and the official Android operating system can be brought into the mainland market, Google will lift the ban on more of its services, according to WSJ.
However, Google will face intensified challenges from many rivals in China such as Tencent Holdings, Baidu Inc and Xiaomi Inc, which dominate the domestic app distribution segment, Zhang said, noting that the company also needs to improve its relationships with the government.
Google is expected to make an announcement about these moves by the end of September, according to The Information.
