The fastest growing sector on the web is mobile phone sites. In the past year, UK consumers have boosted their hit rate by nearly 60%, according to research from Nielsen.
The highest increase was recorded by Envirofone.com, a handset recycling firm, which experienced a 429% increase to 616,000 unique visits by UK users.
The controversial directory service 118 800, which offers UK mobile phone numbers for a charge of £1, was one of the big contributors to traffic growth. The company, which launched in June 2009 (and has since “temporarily” ceased operations), attracted mobile users looking to remove their contact details from the service. Nokia also saw strong growth in traffic, up 203%, while Vodafone's jumped 91% and O2 rose 79%.
The second fastest-growing web site sector was Food and Cooking, which saw a 58% increase from 6.7 million unique UK visitors in July 2008 to 10.5 million in July 2009. A driving factor in the growth was drinks brands, such as Ribena, Baileys and Coca-Cola.
Next up, hits on portals that offered access to coupons and rewards were highlighted with 55% growth, while insurance pages witnessed increases of 53%.
In the last year, companies like Vodafone and O2 have announced network exclusive mobile phones like the HTC Magic and Apple iPhone 3G S respectively, which may have helped support the reported levels of growth.
