U.S. startup Berggi ties up with Sina on mobile

* Berggi ties up with major Chinese portal Sina

* Sets up Beijing office

* Sees Chinese subscribers in the millions in a few years

By Sophie Taylor

SHANGHAI, Dec 3 (Reuters) - U.S. startup Berggi Inc, a provider of e-mail services on mobile phones, has clinched a partnership with major Chinese Internet portal Sina Corp (SINA.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and is setting up an office in Beijing as it targets the world's largest mobile market, Berggi's chief executive said on Monday.

Berggi expects the three-year partnership to help propel its number of Chinese users into the millions in a few years' time, compared with around 30,000 now, CEO Babur Ozden told Reuters in a telephone interview.

The firms aim to develop ad-supported mobile services such as e-mail in China, said Ozden, an industry veteran who founded Internet service SuperOnline, a unit of mobile carrier Turkcell TCELL.IS.

China is home to more than 500 million mobile subscribers and is the world's second-largest Web market after the United States.