Mobile phone websites expand fast

 A major contributor to the sector was 118-800, the controversial directory service containing millions of UK mobile phone numbers. In July, it was the 111th most-visited web brand in the UK.

The second-fastest growing sector online is Food and cooking, which posted a 58% increase from 6.7 million unique UK users in July 2008 to 10.5 million in July 2009. Drinks brands such as Ribena, Baileys and Coca-Cola were a major factor in this sector's growth.

The third and fourth-fastest growing online sectors were Coupons/rewards and Insurance. The former's audience rose by 55% from seven million UK unique users in July 2008 to 10.9 million in July 2009.

The online insurance sector posted 53% growth in UK unique users. This was driven by price-comparison sites such as Compare the Market (up 573%) and Confused.com (up 72%), on the back of heavy advertising.

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk