BEIJING--Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) said Monday it opened a new Chinese-language application store, a move analysts say could presage the introduction of the company's tablets and e-readers in the country.

The store offers applications running Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android operating system, including many of the most popular Chinese social-media and gaming applications, a company spokesman said.

With the new store, which allows users to download free applications or pay for software, Amazon becomes the first major U.S. company to offer a for-pay Android application store.

Amazon has recently been making a push to expand its offerings in China, first launching an online bookstore and then offering cloud storage services. Amazon doesn't yet sell its Kindle or e-readers in China, though many have tipped the company to begin selling its hardware in China soon.

Although Amazon has run an e-commerce operation in China for years, it has failed to build up a significant market share as local competitors like Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. and Beijing Jingdong Century Trading Co. have outcompeted it in attracting new customers. Last year, Amazon's head of operations in China, Wang Hanhua, stepped down after seven years with the company.

The new Amazon China store also underscores the continuing difficulties that Google is having in the country, which last year became the world's largest smartphone market.

Although Google developed Android, which had a more than 80% market share in China at the end of 2012 according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International, difficulties accessing Google Play, its application store, has led users to rely on a number of alternative stores run by local Internet companies and telecom carriers. Analysts say the difficulties with Google Play are due to government blocks on the site.

Google's services in China have often been slow and unreliable since the company declared in 2010 that it would no longer censor Internet searches as required under local law and shifted its search operations to Hong Kong.

Though Amazon is a small online services player in China, the store could help it attract users. With the proliferation of Android application stores in China, the quality control over the applications offered in the stores has lagged, and users and regulators report difficulties with pirated software, spyware and viruses. If Amazon offers a trustworthy site, it could help it to attract customers looking for a safe way to get popular Android applications.

Nonetheless Amazon faces competition from China's largest telecom carriers, like China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (076.HK, CHU) and China Telecom Corp. (0728.HK, CHA) , which each offering their own application stores. Chinese Internet companies like Qihoo 360 Technology Co. (QIHU), UCWeb, Tencent Holdings Ltd. (0700.HK, TCEHY), and Baidu Inc. (BIDU, K3SD.SG) also all offer popular application stores.

Write to Paul Mozur at Paul.Mozur@dowjones.com

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