Google has shown interest to return to the Chinese market after the U.S. Internet giant has reportedly started to register a series of Chinese domain names, giving credence to a Forbes report last month that the company is returning to the country to launch a Chinese version of its Google Play app store by the end of the year.
Rumors about the company's plans to return have been rife since it pulled out of China due to user privacy and censorship concerns.
The recent discovery by Internet users that Google has registered several domain names related to Google Play supported the rumors that it is returning to the country. The registered sites include googleplaychina.com, googleplaychina.cn, googleplay.com.cn, googleplaychinaedition.com, googlechinaaccount.com and googlechinaedition.com.
According to Forbes, Google has been talking with Chinese smartphone manufacturers to set Google Play as their default app store on their phones, in return for subsidies of $1 per handset. The U.S. company is also discussing with the government the firm's plans to open an app store in the country, as cited by Forbes in a 2013 report.
In recent years, China's smartphone market has undergone impressive growth, as a recent report by Trendforce, a global market research firm, showed that global smartphone shipments for the second quarter was pegged at 304 million, with Chinese branded smartphones making up 126 million, or 41 percent of those shipments. This represents a 15.6-percent increase from the previous quarter.
Forbes noted that Google's Android operating system is used on many Chinese smartphones, but Google reportedly gains only little profit from this since companies have no incentive to place Google services prominently and many of these are banned in China.
According to Forbes, the situation may change if the company succeeds in its negotiations with the government and with smartphone manufacturers. However, it will face tough competition from locally developed stores, which have matured during Google's absence from the market.