The Daily Mail has announced that it will launch a paid-for iPad app in the next few months and that its iPhone app, which has a 60-day free trial, has already been downloaded by 70,000 users, Press Gazette revealed today.

"I'm very excited by the various micro payment systems that are in the pipeline that will give us the flexibility to offer new kinds of content that we can charge for on a pay-per-view or piecemeal basis," said Mail Online's publisher Martin Clarke.

Although traffic data has not been confirmed by the ABCe, Clarke said the website attracts 50 million unique users every month. According to Press Gazette, this would mean "that a UK national newspaper is for the first time set to challenge the dominance of the BBC online," which last month reported 60 million users.

Furthermore, the Mail Online executive revealed that Facebook's referral are generating 10 percent of the traffic from the UK, MediaGuardian quoted. "The social networks are becoming increasingly important to us. If you want an engaging site, Facebook isn't a threat or a parasite but a gigantic free marketing engine," he said.