A Paris-based internet start up aims to introduce more people in the developing world to computing by allowing them to have a "virtual PC" on machines they do not own.

To date, efforts to increase the use of computers in poor countries have focused on selling cheap laptops to governments for educational purposes, for instance through the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program.

Jooce, the brainchild of three young entrepreneurs, is approaching the challenge from a different angle - giving the 500 million people who use computers in internet cafes and other places their own "virtual desktop" on others' machines.

The company, which went live a little over a month ago and already has 100,000 users, has devised software which, when a person logs on, gives them access to a "personalised" environment they recognise as their own.

Programs they have installed via the web appear, along with their internet bookmarks and other preferences. There is also the scope to store an unlimited number of documents, photos, videos and other information - and share these with other Jooce users.

Jooce, which was set up by three entrepreneurs who met while working on 'digital divide' policy at the Paris office of the International Chamber of Commerce, plans to make money by selling adverts that will appear on Jooce screens.

The company, which has funding from Mangrove Capital Partners, the venture group that backed Skype, has not revealed the name of specific advertisers, but said that soccer clubs, makers of consumer products, and even movie studios had expressed interest in reaching its users, according to BusinessWeek.

Tapping into the global market for people who use computers regularly but cannot afford their own machines is potentially a lucrative business opportunity, analysts say.

Assuming that, combined, the various schemes selling low-cost computers to the developing world have shifted a million units, that would mean that 99 per cent of the market was "unpenetrated", according to Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies. "If somebody finds a way to do this it would take off like a shot," he said.

Jooce, which is currently available in 19 languages, is already testing its software in Asia, Africa and Latin America via Telecenter.org, a Canadian organisation that supports more than 30,000 internet cafes and other internet access points globally.

It is also pitching its "virtual desktop" to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a branch of the UN which has established internet cafes in parts of the developing world. According to the ITU, just 4.8 per cent of people in Africa are connected to the internet, compared with 38 per cent in Europe.

Jooce's founders say they were struck by the ease of using web-based software such as e-mail and photo-sharing, but thought that a platform which enabled people to bring together all the programs they used regularly would be beneficial.

Their service will compete with other so-called 'web-based operating systems' or 'Web OS', including Axax Windows, run by a San Diego-based company, and Global Hosted Operating System, or g.ho.st, which was selected as a finalist in a 'best new start up' competition at the Web 2.0 Summit conference in San Francisco last year.

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