The social media sites expected to emerge this year all include a few key elements, not necessarily offered by bigger names:
While Facebook and Twitter are making moves towards integrating some of these ideas, they are reactions more than they are innovations. Here are four social media networks that are making the social media titans take notice:
Although Line hasn't yet hit it big in the American market, it's likely the most anticipated social network for 2015. It offers free, user-to-user text, phone and video chat, as well as over 10,000 emojis and stickers. Line has already grown enormously in Japan, and in 2015 it's aiming to acquire one billion users worldwide.
This means Line will be targeting high social-networked countries like Canada and the United States. Because Line is easy to use, mobile-oriented and allows for more personalised user messages through it's library of stickers, it definitely has a good chance of becoming a major player in the this year's social media landscape.
Snapchat is on the rise; its use has skyrocketed to 760 million photos and videos sent daily. There are also many other features that Snapchat has to its advantage over bigger social networks.
Because its manifesto states that it doesn't collect user data for advertising purposes, Ello is expected to make a big entrance into the 2015 social media scene. While it does collect some user data for its own use, there is an option that allows people to opt out of data collection entirely. Whatever users choose to allow, Ello is ad-free, unlike most other networks.
These data collection policies aren't the only reason Ello is so highly anticipated - it also has the bare-bones, minimalist design expected to be a big trend this upcoming year.
Perhaps the most unique social media site on the list, Quora is a social platform for users to share expertise on a wide variety of topics. A cross between a social network and a wiki, Quora allows users to post short blog posts about their topics and answer any questions others may have.
However, Quora's stated mission "to share and grow the world's knowledge" through social media is realised through a platform that looks and feels very similar to Facebook. It's difficult to say how Quora will fare in 2015, but if it can adapt to mobile use through simplistic design and ease of use, it may be one of the top growing networks this year.
Although Facebook and Twitter have several changes planned for the upcoming year, it's doubtless more difficult for these massive networks to react to public demand as quickly and efficiently as these smaller, streamlined upstarts. Although adapting to mobile-friendly design and use is the most important trend this year, only time will tell which of these networks - if any - will make it big.
