YouTube is top website with smartphone users

"As video streaming continues to reign supreme within mobile networks, YouTube continues as the single most significant website for video steaming and sharing, now accounting for 45 percent of overall mobile video streaming traffic and 17 percent of total traffic on mobile networks," said Allot Communications.

Last month YouTube said that it was serving up more than 200 million videos daily to smartphones and other Internet-linked mobile devices.

Allot Communication's Global Mobile Broadband Traffic Report for the second half of 2010 found that video streaming extended its lead over other services, accounting for 37 percent of total traffic.

File sharing represented 30 percent of traffic, which Allot said indicates many subscribers see mobile Internet as a direct substitute for fixed connectivity.

Internet phone services such as Skype and instant messaging services accounted for only four percent of traffic, but experienced strong growth of 87 percent.

Social networking sites experienced rapid mobile growth, with Twitter growing by 1,800 percent over 2010. Facebook grew by 1,000 percent.

The report also found Apple's App Store accounted for 89 percent of app store traffic, with Android Market accounting for just nine percent. It noted that Android Market was growing at a rapid 177 percent, compared to 54 percent for App Store.

US-based Allot Communications prepared its report based on statistics collected from mobile networks around the world representing more than 210 million subscribers.

(c) 2011 AFP