Things to Keep in Mind While Developing a Live Video Streaming Website like Twitch

Our brain grasps visuals faster and better; in fact, our brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster. That's why the majority of people like watching a movie than reading a book. The popularity of video streaming website is not a surprise. Nowadays, we are a part of live interviews, workshops, webinars, online conferences, etc. That's the reason experienced businessmen are investing in creating video streaming websites. With the right approach, even startups can make their mark on video streaming websites. 

What Is Twitch? How Does It Work?

Twitch.tv is an online streaming platform on which millions of users come live every day to chat and interact. From the second quarter of 2018 to the second quarter of 2020, Twitch had an average of 2.36 million viewers at any given.

Twitch users use the platform for video game tutorials and users can interact with the instructor as well as with each other in real-time. You can see upcoming games demos on Twitch, and it hosts E-tournaments. Not only that, Twitch also provides a software development learning environment and allows user communities to stream programming projects and help each other.

Non-gaming live-streaming categories include IRL (In Real Life), Talk Shows, and even Cooking. 

Want to make your own live streaming service? Let's first see the business model and revenue sources of Twitch:

Advertising

A cost per mile (CPM) fee comes from running ads related to portals, gaming companies, and developers. The cost of CPM is anywhere from $2-$10.

Partners

Twitch users buy paid subscriptions for the channels they want to support favorite streamers. The subscription cost is split 50/50 with the channel owner. 

Subscription

There are subscription options for Twitch users from the following options $4.99, $9.99, $24.99 per month. With a paid subscription, users can watch videos without ads and use premium Twitch features. Premium features include Priority customer support, Custom Chat, Username Colors, an Expanded Emoticon Set, and so on.  

Live stream web is an innovative way to get in touch with the modern world. There is no need for a physical presence to interact with each other. Also, who doesn't love the opportunity to engage in any great worldwide event with the help of live streaming websites? 

So, we can say there is a lot of demand for websites like Twitch. Users never get bored with a great streaming solution that provides video content of good quality. Twitch has been successful because of its great services. Earlier, it was difficult for businesses to reach gamers because gamers are not really interested in TV shows and reading. Hence, streaming platforms like Twitch provided the target audience what it needed. 

It is important to understand live stream websites are not only for games; you should find your own niche to become successful.

Must-Have Features of a Live Video Streaming Website

If you are interested in making a video stream website like Twitch, there are some essential features that you must include. Have a look at the below points to create video streaming website:

User Registration

If you are looking to "create my own streaming service," the first and foremost feature that you need to consider is user registration. Users should be able to register and login to your website via social media profiles, like Instagram, Facebook, etc. The benefit of tying your streaming website with social media is that users can share live stream links with their friends, and it helps in attracting more users. Also, include two types of users- watcher and gamer; both these profiles should have distinct feature sets. In the user profile, users can add personal preferences and links to social media. 

Player

Live video website should allow users to watch videos via a player from any device. In addition to that, users should be given an option to customize notifications, resolution, player themes, etc. 

Live Video Streaming

Viewers prefer live streaming sites that provide good video quality. For high-quality video service, RTMP should be used. RTMP stands for real-time media protocol, which maintains low latency connections. RTMP divides the whole stream into small chunks to travel from the server to the client-side.

Security

To build live stream of paid content, advanced security features are crucial. To avoid a data breach, prevent video assets from a data breach, you can use DRM, AES encryption, and IP based access control.

Chat

Sites like Twitch have chat features that allow users to interact with each other during live streams, and viewers can ask questions from the streaming person. It helps create a sense of real-life experience online. A custom chat might cost you more; you can integrate a third-party solution to save cost.

Additional Features

To create live streaming website, various things need to be considered. In the second development phase, you can view some other points for your live video stream app.

Personalized Content

The live video streaming site includes a range of video categories. In the “discover more” section, users can select the content relevant for them and watch new videos from their selected category.  

Automatic Video Categorization

It is not possible to manually catalog streaming data in real-time. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) help in this regard. AI can automatically analyze the video content and Machine Learning can prevent copyright breach on your platform. 

Monetization

Twitch web app provides paid subscriptions or donations via a built-in payment gateway and paid access to premium content. It is essential for your payment processor to accept debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, and other payment methods. 

Analytics

Analytics is one of the crucial parts to make a site successful. If you want to make live streaming services like Twitch, you need to track peak traffic, user engagement, and viewership. It would be great if analytics would be able to compare traffic for different video events. It's a great way to know which streaming category is performing better. 

Schedule Live Streaming

Website live streaming attracts viewers from different countries and time zones. Streamers can easily schedule their next session and notify their followers with the help of Push Notifications. 

How to Build a Live Streaming Site like Twitch?

To make a video streaming website like Twitch, you have to follow the following roadmap:

A Clear Business vision

You should have a clear business vision, identify your goals. Here, you need to identify what you want before making a decision to build video streaming website. When you are clear about your goals, you don't lose focus and head in the wrong direction. Choose your niche and research your competitors well in advance. Here, you also decide how your platform will be different from the existing ones. Write a vision statement to be clear about your objectives.

Discovery (Inception) Phase

In your live streaming website's discovery phase, you should focus on functional specifications, feature lists, etc. It should provide functional requirements of how to broadcast web application and non-functional requirements that explain software characteristics. 

Tech Stack

Here, you should choose the platform to power your live streaming website and see third-party services to integrate. You can choose any of the live streaming platforms like Contus Vplay, Brightcove, Vplayed, or you can make a custom one. This is the right stage to create database schema, server architecture, etc.  

Design

An appealing design provides a positive first impression. Make sketches to get a vision of the website layout. Use these sketches to build a wireframe for every screen of the website. Then turn wireframes into a website prototype and give genuine feedback. 

Development

Building a streaming platform requires the integration of comprehensive cloud architecture. Start the development with a live streaming website MVP. The MVP will have the high-priority features, such as live streaming player, user profile, etc. It is a great way to minimize risks.

Testing 

The testing phase is crucial for the success of the live streaming website. Testing ensures that everything works perfectly fine. The testing team will run both manual and automated testing to get rid of any bugs. 

Final Words

The article provided you with knowledge on how to create a video streaming website. It requires a lot of hours of searching and coding to make an exceptional video streaming site like Twitch.