The number of monthly UK unique users on Metro.co.uk should hit five million by the end of the year, the daily commuter title pledges as part of a set of targets outlined today.

According to figures presented by Metro, the site had 3.5 million unique monthly browsers on average in November 2010, compared with around one million in November 2009.

But Rich Mead, assistant managing director, said this is still "not enough to compete properly in today's market".

"We are going in the right direction and it is a significant step forward," he said presenting the figures.

"The challenge for this year has to be five million as a starting point," he added.

At a meeting today Metro claimed to have had a record year in 2010, across profits, display revenues and on digital platforms, although the publisher would not share individual figures.

"2010 was Metro's best year and we have a positive outlook for 2011," the team said, adding that enhancing its digital offering and developing the core product, particularly in the style and entertainment sections, are the priorities for the year ahead.

The Metro's iPhone app, which launched around 12 months ago, has had 350,000 downloads so far while its iPad app, launched in June last year, has had 50,000.

A new universal app for both devices, which offers both the page-turning format of the iPhone app with the live version update style of the iPad app, is due to be submitted to Apple today.

Mead added that development of mobile technology should now become a more "constant evolution" and that the intention now is to bring development back in house.

"We have to be controlling it from here," he said.

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