More than 600 million people use Facebook Messenger each month to send texts, photos and videos. In March 2015 at the company’s F8 developer conference, Zuckerberg announced that you’ll soon be chatting to your favourite brand via the platform as easily as you do your best mate.

Smartphones have transcended their status as luxury possessions – they're practically considered a necessity. So it’s probably not surprising that mobile shopping is on the up – in the UK, it's set to rise by 77% in 2015. And thanks to Barclays Pingit, now you can even pay for stuff via Twitter.

From messaging to social media to a marketplace to browsing the internet, WeChat is the app the does everything. While Western companies and app developers race to unbundle their services into efficient single-purpose apps, WeChat continues to add feature after feature.

The Chinese urban population is set to increase by 13 million every year between now and 2030. But with 95% of China’s cities falling short of environmental standards, the government is urgently seeking greener models for urban living. Will eco-cities be China’s cities of the future?