The tension between Google Inc and Beijing is more of a nuisance than a financial blow for now, but it's a taste of the challenges that lie ahead as the world's largest Internet search engine strives to expand in China.

On Thursday, a Chinese official accused Google of spreading obscene content over the Internet. The comments came a day after Google.com, Gmail and other Google online services abruptly became inaccessible to many users in China.

Analysts said the service disruptions are unlikely to have major financial repercussions on Google given its presence in China, but may prompt the company to tweak its operations in the world's single largest Internet market by subscribers.

"China itself is a rounding error for Google. It's a high growth opportunity for them, but it's not a major contributor today," said RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler.

Google, which gets 52 per cent of its revenue from outside the United States, does not divulge China-related income. Sandler estimates Google's annual revenue from China at $200 million to $300 million, or about 1.4 per cent of the $21.8 billion in revenue the company recorded in 2008.

"There's a lot of volume in China, but the monetization of the traffic, the online advertising, isn't as far along as it is in US and Europe," said Richard Fetyko, an analyst with Merriman Curhan Ford.

Google's share of the Chinese search market lags Baidu, the country's home-grown Internet powerhouse which analysts believe has upwards of 60 per cent market share.

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