Social Networks: what happened in 2014 and what to expect in 2015

A very happy and prosperous new year to all the readers and non-readers of The Socionauts. 2014 was a year significance for social networks. As we fervently wait for the new surprises that awaits us this year, let’s take a look at the highlights of the previous year and also peep into the future of the world of social networking.

•   19 Feb – Facebook buys Whatsapp for a whopping $19 billion. Soon after, whatsapp experiences downtime.  

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  5 March – Oculus Virtual Reality is acquired by Facebook for $2 billion. 3. July – Facebook initiates Internet.org, an initiative to provide free or cheap internet services across different nations.

• July – ‘Ello’ a brand new social networking site that claims to be ad-free created, a facebook page opened soon.  

• 1 August – Twitter acquires Mitro, a password security service.  

• September – Whatsapp adds the blue tick feature to symbolize read messages. While some welcome it, some look for ways to cheat it.  
  

• 30 September – Google’s first social networking site, Orkut closed down. 

• November – Katy Perry becomes the most followed person on Twitter with 61 billion followers.Shakira’s page becomes the most popular facebook celebrity fan page. Facebook’s official page and ‘Facebook for every phone’ page receive the most number of likes.

• Virat Kohli becomes the first cricketer to have 5 million twitter followers.

• Fifa world cup becomes the most tweeted topic with over 618,725 Tweets sent per minute.

• The golden tweet a.k.a the most re-tweeted tweet of the year was @TheEllenShow’s starry photo from the March Oscars telecast.

          What to expect in 2015

Alike 2014, 2015 is expected to be a great year for social networks. Let’s have a look at what could be expected from the giants:

• Twitter is planning to introduce  a curated timeline for new users to reduce the friction of having to find people to follow when first signing up on the social network.

• Whatsapp may include live calling features. More stickers and emoticons are also expected.

• At the analyst event, Twitter's team said it plans to introduce "significant functionality to private messaging" soon.
  

• New social networks such as ello are expected to gain popularity. Social messenger apps may also receive more users.

  

  the ello logo

• Both Facebook and Twitter may make notable acquisitions and more priority may be given to smartphone applications.

• Facebook and twitter may introduce buy now feature that allow people to buy products from e-commerce sites with just a click or two.Facebook is also expected to release service that allows users to send money online by using just the debit card information. 

• Internet.org is expected to extend its reach to more countries.

  

  internet.org

What are your expectations from social networks this year? Use the comment box below to share your views.