Yahoo is predicting a boom in users of its mobile search facility.

The company now has 60 partnerships with phone operators worldwide, having added six new deals in Asia.

These include Mahanagar Telephon Nigam (MTNL) in India, Hong CSL Limited, Smart Communications and Digital Mobile Phlis (Sun Cellular) in the Philippines and Vibo Telecom in Taiwan.

"We are now able to reach 600 million subscribers", David Ko, Asia managing director and vice president of Yahoo's mobile division, told Reuters.

He added: "This creates the scale to make mobile advertising attractive".

KO added that the mobile advertising market is expected to rise to $16.2 billion in 2011 up from $1.5 billion in 2006.

Yahoo "would obviously love to take a large chunk of that pie", he concluded.

>> Via - Reuters