The MailOnline's "main competition" is AOL/The Huffington Post and Yahoo, editor Martin Clarke told the Leveson Inquiry on Wednesday.

Speaking to the inquiry into media standards, he said that British newspapers were "well placed" to compete in a global news market.

"The English language news is not one market anymore. It's a global market… Fleet Street is very well-placed to exploit that market."

The Associated Newspapers journalist elaborated in his witness statement, writing that the internet had "no borders."

"It is called the worldwide web for good reason. Two thirds of MailOnline monthly users are outside the UK. Equally our biggest competitors; Yahoo, MSN, Huffington Post etc either are already or have ambitions to become global news providers, as do we."

But Clarke warned in a "globalised" business, it would be "very unpalatable" for newspaper websites to be placed under "an even heavier" regulatory burden.

"If you're asking me how to regulate the internet, my question is 'do you need to regulate the internet, even more than you need a policeman standing in the corner of every pub?'"

Clarke warned the inquiry not to "handcuff" the press in his witness statement, saying the internet "questions the entire relevance of regulation."

"We cannot say: ‘Stop the internet, we want to get off’. Britain can no longer wall itself off from the world, even if it wanted to.

"Like it or not, the values and culture of the internet are American. And in America, free speech trumps all."

Clarke said a third of the site's traffic came from showbiz stories, and said in three years they had 205 legal complaints, 35 for privacy issues, and three compensation payments for six PCC privacy complaints.

He added the site was edited for the visitors that came straight to the homepage, rather than through search engines or social media.

"You have to produce a product that's trusted. Our business is not built around sensational, one-off virals."