So, 2014 has come and gone and the year will forever hold a special place in our hearts. In 2014, we saw an explosion in wearable technologies: watches, fitness tracker and motion sensor. Companies like FitBit and Jawbone made giant leaps in these areas with the introduction of their fitness bands. Samsung, LG, Apple and her ilks made good on smart watches. Google scooped Nest, the home thermostat maker in a deal worth well over $3B. Google also solidified its position with Glass.

While 2014 was awesome for some, it didn't quite augur well for the vast majority of others. Hackers and script kiddies alike dealt heavy blows on some companies, from Ebay to Target, Sony to Adobe. Even SnapChat. While some companies got a fore knowledge of what was to come, some got caught totally unprepared. Both Symantec and LookOut - a mobile security company predicts that these kinds of attacks will even be more widespread come 2015.

One of the major buzz in technology last year was that of Big Data, companies both large and small are beginning to see the need for Big Data and engineers who understand this turf very well are in high demand. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, etc are all investing millions of dollars into this space so as to enable them make sense of all the data we have all willingly thrown at them. The Ebola scourge was already picked weeks before it became a major epidemic. LinkedIn and Facebook are making more intelligent decision based on our network just from the data we hand to them.

In a Harvard Business Review feature article, the author had this to say

"demand [for data scientists] has raced ahead of supply. Indeed, the shortage of data scientists is becoming a serious constraint in some sectors."

The World Economic Forum classifies data as an asset and places it in the same economic class of Gold and Crude.

2014 could also pass as the year of the sharing economy, Uber,Lyft and AirBnB led the charge this year. Reminding us that we don't necessarily need to own our cars and houses in other to enjoy the luxuries that comes with them. The sharing economy is here to stay.

In 2014 we saw breakout successes for some companies that went public. Notably, the Chinese Internet behemoth, Alibaba, went public in 2014 and raised what has become the largest amount of money by any public company - $24B. Twitter also did go Public this year and so far Wall Street has been nice to her. Uber raised an insane amount of money from VCs, approximately $3B with a staggering $40B valuation. Tencent, the third member of China's oligopoly splashing $600M on Travis' baby. The company currently operates in over 100 cities around the world. Amidst the bumpy ride, Uber seems to be on a roll. The Samwers; Oliver, Marc and Alexander took their Rocket Internet, an infamous clone factory, public in Berlin.

We also saw strong signals coming in from Asia, Flipkart raised almost $2B at a valuation of $11B, Masayoshi Son's SoftBank, flushed with fresh money from Alibaba's IPO is already investing in India's Ola cabs a Uber-esque service poised to give Uber a run for her money in their home turf. Snapdeal also got in on the show too.

Cloud computing is here to stay, though the three major players; Amazon, Google and Microsoft will continue to battle for supremacy, under dogs like Digital Ocean, Linode, Rackspace and her likes will continue to carter to the long tail.

There was so much charter about diversity. Different interest group spoke about the need to have a uniform or balanced diversity ratio. Female tech powerhouse like Sheryll Sandberg are already leading the cause.

In the local scene here, a lot has been seen in the consumer Internet space. eCommerce companies across different verticals seems to have had it smooth last year, from hotel booking, deal site, marketplaces, mobile money, etc. With the entrants of PayPal and Uber, one can really hope for the best. The coming of these companies is a testament to the fact that our market is grown and a validation of what we have to offer. Konga and Jumia seems to be the breakaway success in the eCommerce space. Both companies raising over $100M cumulatively and employing over 1,500 persons between them. It is also good to point that both companies are barely 3yrs old.

Konga as a company has enjoyed tremendous success, with her recent Yakata sales, an equivalent of the world renowned Black Friday, she made sales worth N600M ($3.45m) approximately. Indeed 2014 was a great year but 2015 is going to be a lot more awesome.

eCommerce will continue to be on the rise with companies now having strong footholds in niche market; Fashion, babies and beauty. Ultimately what will separate the boys from the men in 2015 will be strategy not just pricing and marketing. As Peter Thiel would say, transcend not compete. Transcend…..so we watch out for those that will transcend.

More money will flow into the consumer Internet space with local VCs and PE firms taking part in this pie. We might see one exit/acquisition or some form of consolidation. Traditional companies will look for ways to diversify, the MTN/AIH deal has already shown us what is possible. Traditional institutions will be shaken up to the point of disruption.

The growth of mobile will only continue to go North, with efforts from Google (Android One) and Facebook's Internet.org, we can only expect the best.

While logistics and Payment is still a major factor affecting ecommerce, more companies will emerge to tackle this specific problems.

We will cross our fingers and hope to see what 2015 has in-store.

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