Snap happy: In Britain, mobile bloggers are swapping instant candid clips of celebrities - but Hong Kong may have to wait to give chase.

Bloggers have been giving mainstream media hacks a run for their money. Now the tabloids and gossip rags have reason to worry.

The next wave in blogging - the mobile handset - is turning phone-wielding celebrity chasers into bona fide paparazzi.

Since Hutchison launched mobile blogging services at its British operations last month, star-struck 3G users have discovered a new pastime: the candid celebrity photo.

"Our customers are embracing the chance to become paparazzi, sharing images and clips of celebrities straightaway, well before paparazzo photos appear in the papers," said 3 UK marketing director Graeme Oxby.

Blogging services provide simple tools that allow internet users to keep online diaries containing text, photos, audio and video. The next step is mobile blogging services, which allow users to update their diaries with text, pictures and video from their handsets.

Yet despite the popularity of blogs with young people in Hong Kong - not to mention a strong mobile-phone culture with a penetration rate well in excess of 100 per cent - Hutchison Telecommunications and other Hong Kong carriers say they have no plans to introduce mobile blogging tools.

Operators claim they are not out of touch - they just do not see mobile blogging as viable business opportunity, though the services would give carriers another opportunity to earn revenue on data transmission.

A CSL spokeswoman said: "Technology-wise, mobile blogging is not difficult but we don't think the market is ready for it."

SmarTone Telecommunications chief technology officer Stephen Chau expected mobile blogging to be popular in Hong Kong. "It means people can blog on the go, it gives people an ad hoc feeling," he said.

Nevertheless, it might be too early to launch services, he said. "The fundamental issue is to offer a simple posting system with good integration with other 3G applications."

SmarTone runs two services that allow its customers to share photos on a community website run by the company but these would hardly satisfy bloggers looking to update personal websites while on the go.

Hutchison's services are more restrictive. Videos can be shared with other 3G users through its DV Club channel but users are not able to post content to the internet.

Sunday Communications, which launched 3G services earlier this month, was enthusiastic about mobile blogging but declined to outline any plans for starting services. Whether Sunday launches mobile blogging may now be up to fixed-line carrier PCCW, which is in the process of acquiring the company.

"Mobile blogging might take some time to take off in the same way that internet blogging did at the beginning," said group managing director Bruce Hicks. "But when it does it will be huge because mobile blogging adds an extra dimension in that people can post to their blog in real time."

Mobile blogging when combined with location-based technology could prove especially powerful. The idea is that users would leave location-based posts for their friends. Say for example you walk into a Chinese restaurant and the phone buzzes. It is a blog post from your friend with a message: "Try the duck". Attached is a photo of the dish.

Hutchison's British operation is pitching its blogging services at 18- to 34-year-olds - the same generation that gave the world "happy slapping", in which a friend or, more disturbingly, a stranger is assaulted and their response filmed with a camera phone. But 3G's high data transmission costs could turn off some price-sensitive users.

"Right now, 3G service is still too expensive for the general public in Hong Kong. Users will remain conservative about mobile blogging due to the posting fees," said Joe Yeung, chief financial officer at Hong Kong social networking website Ba8ua.com.

Mr Yeung suspected closed blogging, in which users share content with a defined group of friends, would be more popular than open blogging, which is content that is shared with the world. Most Hong Kong blog authors preferred closed blogging, he said.