In the absence of Google Play, homegrown app stores dominated the market, with 11 stores taking a double-digit market share as of May, according to the Big Data Research Center at the Chengdu-based University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

Baidu Inc, Qihoo 360 Technology Co and Tencent Holdings Ltd have all set up Android app stores targeting mainland users, with Xiaomi Corp, Lenovo Group Ltd and other hardware vendors following suit. The 360 store, the largest on the market, handles more than 160 million app downloads each day, according to the company.

But China's demand for mobile apps is set to grow.

With China set to account for a huge chunk of app downloads and purchase payment in the near future, Google needs to include it in its own app store.

Although a good number of Google products, including its search engine and map services, are unavailable on the Chinese mainland, the 17-year-old company had never moved out of China completely. It has been promoting its online advertising business to Chinese companies which are looking to expand overseas.

Google representatives, including Chairman Eric Schmidt and lower-level employees such as the head of Google Doodle team, have visited China even in its lowest moment, visiting smartphone retail marketplaces and making public speeches on graphic design and company culture.