Amazon.com has started offering paid apps in China through its newly established Android application store, which targets the Google's presence in the world's biggest mobile market. The store offers Chinese users both free and paid apps, while Google's app store only offers free apps in the country.

But besides Google, Amazon's app store must compete with local rivals offering paid and free apps, some of them pirated.

Amazon has also opened Kindle e-book store in China in December.

The launch of the new store paves the way for Amazon to offer a range of devices including the standard Kindle e-reader and the Kindle Fire.