The year is getting over so this is a good time to remember what happened on social networks. These are the main trends that we went through during 2015 and which do also mark the future of social media.

1. Ads have invaded social networks. They are a good business as advertisers can find the strangest niches they could think of. Programmatic buying is being highly used.

2. Google is coming back on social networks. It tried to revive Google+ and is developing it’s ow Whatsapp-like messenger service.

3. Vine is the social network of the year, as many brands have created their channel on this short video publishing system. Viners are becoming more and more popular in the US.

4. Video on Facebook is nearing Youtube in terms of usage, though data shows that the social network is measuring views in a different way as its competitor and many items are being ilegally shared on its platform.

5. Mobile has become the main device in which all social networks are used and apps promotion has become one of its main source of ad revenues.

6. WhatsApp launched a web version, which marks the beginning of Facebook’s roadmap to making profits out of its messenger service.

7. Topsy’s closure by its new owner, Apple, shocked many people, as social analytics has become a growing business and Topsy was a quite known brand in this field. What it means is that search is more based than ever on social signals, as Apple is using Topsy’s search technology for iOS’s search engine.

8. Big Data is another winner of the year. After failing everywhere, FourSquare has decide to move towards this business, after predicting sales volume of Apple’s latest iPhone by measuring foot traffic in the vicinity of its stores.

9. Unicorns, or companies surpassing 1 billion dollars of value, are everywhere. Pinterest is already worth more than US$10 billion and coders’ social network GitHub surpassed 2 billion.