How much does it Cost to Develop a Video Streaming Mobile App Like Netflix?

The introduction of on-demand video streaming apps has almost led to the extinction of traditional television sets. With the luxury of selecting the kind of content people want to view, to choose from a huge variety of categories like web series, TV series, movies, news, sports, video games, personal content, cartoons, educational content, documentaries, and so much more, the number of consumers turning towards video streaming platforms is on a rise like never before. In other words, it will not be wrong to say that the majority of entertainment lovers globally are no longer interested in waiting for shows and movies to air on their traditional tv channels but rather switch to these platforms to watch what they like when they like and as they like.

In today's time and age, where the interest and definition of entertainment are changing with every passing day, we at Biz4group, firmly believe that video streaming mobile apps are the king of the media. If you are looking for a company that helps you to build user-friendly mobile apps, consists of monetization strategies, and enables you to grab the attention of not just social media but also the audiences, then we at Biz4group with our video streaming app development services are the right place for you.

Things to consider before you are on your way to build a live streaming mobile app

Even though a good app is a combination of many features, we at Biz4group strongly advocate market analysis and study of the competitors as a must before the development plan is curated. There is simply no denying the fact that any OTT platform development that has been thoughtfully and carefully built is sure to emerge as a winner in the market. To ensure that your app emerges as a winner in the market, we ensure a thorough check of all the following factors :

User dashboards

• Registration and User onboarding: New users should have a quick and easy registration followed by easy login via their phone number, google account, etc.

• Profile: Update, add, and remove details as needed.

• Browse and Search Content by Filter: Browse as per the different genres, languages, types of content, artist, and many other filters.

• Play Video Preview: To get a gist of the video before playing the entire segment

• Watch video streaming: Stream video of choice.

• Playlist functionality: Create and add a video to a playlist. Playlists can be private or public.

• Push Notifications: To inform users of ongoing offers, new content additions, releases, trailer launches, etc.

• Payment Gateway: This allows users to make payments for any subscription model chosen.

• Offline usage: Save video for offline use.

• Link Sharing: Share the video link on social networks.

• Manage devices: Add or remove devices in their active subscription

Admin

• Profile management: Add, edit or delete profile details as and when needed

• Video Uploads: Upload, publish and delete videos with their respective information.

• User Management: Manage subscribers, memberships & users.

• In-App Ads: Manage in-app advertising and promotions, timelines of occurrence, etc.

• Customer Loyalty Tracking: Manage and update various loyalty plans.

• View analytics: Easy access to statistics related to the number of users per month, most-watched shows, number of users lost per month, etc.

Advanced features

• Behavior Tracking: Using AI and ML algorithms, the admin should be able to study the content that interests the user. The app should push recommendations based on the type of shows streamed. This helps in building customer loyalty toward the brand.

• Streaming Quality: The app should be able to suggest the quality of the video depending on the network connection of a device.

Some interesting statistics:

• The live streaming industry is predicted to grow up to $70.50 billion by the end of 2021.

• 51% of homes in the United States of America are using a video streaming platform, and almost 6 hours per day are reported to be spent on these videos in a day.

• In 2018, brands spent more than $90 billion on video content. By 2023, that number is expected to rise to more than $100 billion.

These statistics are enough to convince app builders that now is the perfect time to develop a video streaming app that will pioneer the generation of capital for your business. In current times, Netflix is without a doubt one of the most robust and loved OTT platforms globally. At Biz4group we felicitate live streaming app development for you on similar guidelines as Netflix to develop solutions that are nothing but the best.

Factors that make Netflix an excellent choice to become your app model

• Netflix offers a wide range of genres to its subscribers to stream, anytime and anywhere.

• Netflix has successfully built its relationship with Smart TV companies like Sony and LG and gaming companies like PlayStation and X-Box. They have around 35+ partners globally.

• Netflix has an effective subscription model and pricing strategy. Viewers can choose from three types of subscriptions plans, including

○ Basic Streaming: $8.99/month

○ Standard Streaming: $12.99/ month

○ Premium Streaming: $15.99/ month

• The AI algorithm used in Netflix recommends shows that the user might prefer after studying the user's watching history. This has increased its popularity amongst the user base by manifolds,

• Additionally, Netflix has a Domestic DVD segment, which helps it drive more revenue from monthly subscription fees for services consisting of DVD by mail.

• Netflix advertises through online channels to gain more subscribers and traffic.

Revenue

( Source )

• Netflix is the world's seventh-largest company on the internet by revenue

• This video streaming platform has over 180 million users from all over the world.

• Netflix video streaming platform has nearly 183 million paid memberships from all over the globe.

• In 2020, Netflix's profit for the first quarter was about $5.8 billion.

• This income is also inclusive of capital obtained through advertising- charging companies for placing them inside the video streaming app and the concept of "Freemium," where users have to pay to access some exclusive videos.

If your app plans to follow the business model of Netflix, you can be guaranteed that it will be a hit amongst your target audience. Let's now dive into the technical details of creating a video streaming app.

Recommended Technology Stack/ Development Tools

With robust technology that can scale itself to support an increasing number of users, the app should also have a very strong database to support all the content and user information that will be stored within it. The database will form the very spine of your application!

Here is a list for you to consider:

• Frontend: JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML5, CSS3, React, Angular, Vue.js, Redux.

• Backend: PHP, Python, Go, Django, Node.js, Express, Laravel.

• Database: MongoDB, Cassandra, PostgreSQL

• Mobile: Swift (iOS), Java, Kotlin (Android), React Native (Cross Platform)

• API Management: Rest Api, tripe, EC2, S3

• DevOps: AWS, Azure, GCP (Google Cloud Platform), etc.

• Push Notifications: Twilio, Push.io

• Payments: PayPal, Stripe, PayPal

• Cloud Environment: Amazon AWS

• Real-time Analytics: Hadoop, Apache Spark, Big Data, Apache Flink, Cisco, IBM

Development Cost and Working Hours

The development cost and timeline of the project are majorly dependent on whether you want to develop an MVP (Minimum viable product) or opt for a full-fledged development. In the MVP mode, you can create the basic and most important features and release the product in the market. Based on customer feedback, you can then modify or even drop add-on features. This helps save a lot of development time and effort and lowers the risk of creating an app with features that the target audience may not welcome.

In case of a full-fledged development, you create the entire app with all the decided features and then release it in the market.

Now, for an MVP product, here is a breakdown of the features and time required to develop the same:

Features	Timeline
UI/UX design	180-190 hours
User Login	60 hours
User Profile	80 hours
Content Search	120-150 hours
Payment Gateway	80-90 hours
Multi Language Support	80 hours
Admin Panel	2500 hours
Text chat	209 hours
Notifications	36 hours hours

Keeping all this in mind, the app development charge around the US may range from $ 140 - $ 260 per hour of work. Additionally, if you want to focus on developing an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), the cost may go up to $10,000-$25,000 depending upon the features required.

Why chose Biz4group as your video streaming mobile app partner?

A video streaming app with intuitive UI, great functionality, robust video player integration, adaptive bitrate streaming, and multi-screen compatibility is sure to be a hit among your target audience.

Considering the growth and popularity of the OTT platforms, we at Biz4group design and develop platforms that create user-centric experiences and work in sync with the understanding of the users. Our mission is to develop platforms that not just enable you to create a niche place in the market but also stay way ahead of your competitors. Factors that make us an ideal choice to become your video streaming mobile app partners are :

• Competitive research – There is a huge variety of OTT platforms out there, but have you ever wondered why some of them are more popular than others? Multiple features such as complexities, the use of features, user experience, etc all collectively play a pivotal role in winning the likes for a particular platform. At Biz4group we do a detailed and in-depth analysis of our competitors to develop strategies that will enable you to make a difference and stand out with your functionalities and use of features.

• User research – When we are building user-centric applications, the most essential step is understanding the users. We use empathy maps that help us to understand factors that impress the users and points that push them away. By adding features where they can flawlessly move on from one episode to another, effortlessly navigates, search easily, etc, our goal is to develop platforms that exceed the user expectations every time and makes them addicted to the best.

• Prototyping - Prototyping is a stage where representative models are built to test the viability and experience of a particular platform. Once we have successfully attained the required results for competitive research and user research, prototyping paves way for the development of the desired results. This entire process helps you to build strategies and plans as per the user's likes and preferences.

To build an app that comes with a personalized user experience, is a multi-lingual, AI-powered recommendation engine, retention packages, easy navigation, etc, get in touch with the Biz4group team today.