Shortly after Apple Inc's CEO Tim Cook visited China, Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of the United States-based Internet giant Google Inc, has met Chinese mobile application developers during a visit to Beijing.
The move comes at a time when Google is trying to increase its presence in China's mobile sector, the world's largest smartphone market.
At a public event for mobile app developers on Friday, Schmidt talked with the people present and gave tips on how to develop start-up companies.
The visit follows Schmidt's private trip earlier this week to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson.
Earlier this week, Apple's Cook met Miao Wei, the minister of industry and information technology, and senior officials of China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd and China Mobile Ltd during his visit to China.
Duncan Clark, chairman of market research company BDA China Ltd, said that Schmidt's visit to China was incidental, after his visit to the DPRK.
However, Clark added that "both Google China's R&D presence in Beijing and its massive influence on the smartphone market through Android still give it a lot of heft here" despite the fact that local rival Baidu Inc has won the upper hand in recent times. Google's Android is the world's most widely used smartphone operating system.