"We wanted to build GDS the way Google built Google and the way Amazon built Amazon," Tom Loosemore, deputy director at the Cabinet Office's GDS, told the Digital London conference yesterday.

GDS identified four key approaches to doing this, namely, by doing things digital-by-default, being agile and user-centric, and by using and promoting open data.

Being agile has helped GDS respond quickly to trends in demand, said Loosemore.

For example, a team of 30 developers at GDS launched a mobile version of the beta stage of its single domain website, GOV.UK, just days after the main site went live.

"The key feedback was that more than 20 percent of people were using it [the site] on smartphones.