“People rarely think twice about using social networking sites, let alone who actually owns our social media.”

– Mark Pearson, My Voucher Codes

Social media is still on the rise. Over the course of the past year, we’ve seen social networking sites rise and fall, failing at the first hurdle or being absorbed by the bigger names who dominate the industry. My Voucher Codes understand the importance of social media in our everyday lives, especially considering now how people spend on average up to 3 hours a day on social media, whether that’s contacting friends and family, catching up on celebrity gossip, finding new brands and shopping offers, or scrolling mindlessly through the sea of updates. Therefore they’ve done some research into the big social brands to find out what’s going on and who really owned our social media in 2014, putting together this handy video:

(via Digital Connect Mag)

While once upon a time, people talked about “unplugging” and switching themselves off from the big world online, it doesn’t seem that would even ben possible nowadays. It has such a big impact on us, even if you’re not someone who spends all their time on it, but it seems that almost everything we do online is controlled by one of the 5 main companies: Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and Yahoo. Even if you’re not using one of those sites, take a look at the video and you’ll discover that those sites and apps you’re using such as Instagram and WhatsApp might actually be under the control of Facebook or Google.

Every time a new start up appears, it seems it can only go one of two ways: fight against the competition and drop out, or be sucked in by one of the bigger players. There are certain smaller sites forging their way ahead that aren’t yet controlled by these 5 companies, such as Pinterest, Snapchat and Kik Messenger. Mark Pearson from My Voucher Codes explained further:

“We have known for a long time that Facebook has dominated, however their growth is also down to their acquisitions and they are not alone, with Google, Twitter and Yahoo buying start up after start up, they are increasing their control.”

So what will we see in the world of social media in 2015? Will the big names continue to dominate the industry, growing further and absorbing smaller sites and companies, or will any new names forge their way forward and break through into the mainstream? Only time will tell.