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OZ will offer a technology that lets mobile phone network operators and handset makers load a connection to social networking sites onto phones in a bid to capitalise on the growth of community web sites like MySpace, owned by News Corporation and YouTube, which was recently purchased by Google.

The company already provides technology that lets people access email and instant messaging services from MSN, AOL and Yahoo over their mobile phones, with such customers in the US as Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA.

OZ will offer the product in the first half of 2007 and is in talks with leading mobile phone networks, phone makers and social networking

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sites for the service, said chief executive Skuli Mogensen.

'Clearly the user experience will not be the same as on a desktop [computer],' Mogensen said in an interview. 'But the mobile phone has other attributes that are so appealing we think it will fly.'

The growing use of mobile phones embedded with digital cameras will encourage their use as a device to share photos and video on the spot, he said.

OZ expects to record revenue from the new technology in 2007 and believes social networking revenue could eventually contribute equally to its business with the more established email and instant messaging services, Mogensen said.

The company has already loaded such e-mail or messaging services onto 70m devices in North America.

A social networking service would appear to users as an icon or option on a mobile phone menu. Selecting the icon would bring the customer to a list of the most popular networking sites among hundreds of nascent internet communities.

'If a new community arrives and becomes a major hit, our solution allows mobile operators to introduce that new community,' Mogensen said.

OZ recently completed a $34 million round of fundraising. The company is based in Montreal and employs about 230 people.