The Powell Street Station, the busiest public transport stop for Muni and BART users nearest to the Westfield San Francisco Centre, had a flock of Chinese travelers passing through Wednesday morning. Yes, they were carrying loads of luggage and, no, they weren't in the neighborhood for shopping sprees at Macy's or Bloomingdale's.

Their first destination? The Moscone Center a few blocks away for the sixth annual Google I/O conference for software developers.

They were among more than 5,500 geeks, app developers and Google fans around the world who paid $900 a ticket for the conference that focuses on all kinds of applications for Google and open Web technologies.

Most of the Chinese developers didn't hang around the booths for YouTube or Knowledge Graph. They went directly to the third floor, where Google was showcasing the latest Chromebook Pixel laptop as well as new software for Android-powered phones. But one of the biggest attractions was the opportunity to get up close to Google CEO Larry Page, who made a surprise appearance in the morning.

"Android is the most used mobile operating system in the world, particularly in China," said Leo Zhang, a Chinese app developer. "Google doesn't announce any surprise of hardware this year, but it gives all Chinese developers a clear and positive signal: They are focused on creating great Android experiences within a strong ecosystem."

"That's a good thing for Chinese developers and the pace of innovation has never been greater for us who use the open source from Android."

According to Google, more than 900 million Android activations and over 48 billion apps have been downloaded from Google Play as of Wednesday. It also recorded over 2.5 billion app downloads last month.

"I saw a number of new features and services for Google Play, more tools to help Android app developers make powerful and successful apps for Google Play, as well as a new offering from Google in Education," said a game developer surnamed Liu.

In Wednesday morning's keynote speech, Google announced a series of new Android-powered tools that included Google Play Music All Access, Google Play game services, Google Play Redesign and Updated Apps, and Google Play for Education.

Android and Google Play offer resources at every step of the development life cycle for an Android app, from design to development to distribution. Google is also expanding this commitment with a more powerful development environment, a more powerful version of Google Play services, and more publishing options in the developer console.

"Most of the Chinese mobile application developers are living on the open source of Android system, so it would be a disaster if Google shut down the open source one day," said a man who claims to work for Xiaomi Tech, a Beijing-based mobile phone and application developer. He refused to be named.

Xiaomi, dubbed by the Chinese media as the Chinese Apple, paid for five staffs to bring the latest information from Google I/O back to Beijing this year.

Google I/O is not only a fancy party for geeks or apps developers, it is also a social platform for Chinese entrepreneurs who have broader views about the global market and overseas talent pool.

"Google is incubating the most distinguished engineers in the Silicon Valley. By now every IT startup has at least one person with a Google background," said Wang Hua, co-founder and partner of Innovation Works, China's top incubator for tech startups based in Beijing.

For Jin Lei, marketing department director of Kingsoft Internet Security Software, Google I/O is a social platform to lead them to the most influential connections in Silicon Valley.

"We plan to promote products in the US market, and Google I/O attracts the most influential voices in the tech field," he said.

The Google I/O conference runs through Friday.

chenjia@chinadailyusa.com