Many people like watching movies more than reading books because the video is more engaging. The live streaming market is set to reach around $125 billion by 2025. In the last few years, it has forced many businesses to move online to simplify the working process and continue with the flow without any hindrances. It includes conducting webinars and online training sessions by business organizations, running online classes by schools and colleges, and other related media and entertainment content. Those who have provided online live streaming services have made a huge profit. So here is the blog regarding how to make a live video streaming website like Twitch.
Steps to make a live streaming website like Twitch
Decide on Your Platform
You should have an idea of what type of video content you are going to live stream and who will be your target audience. Decide what are options to be included in your live streaming websites, such as the video conferencing feature, other options such as creating a channel for each streamer, and whether it is a free platform or paid subscription service. You have to include options like anyone can start streaming videos, or only paid users can stream live videos online. You can even look for a Live streaming platform provider that builds a live streaming website for video creators and businesses.
Important features to consider
Live video streaming websites should be flawless and must meet the demands of the market. Modern users always expect the best from service providers. Otherwise, they will search for other alternatives as there are more live streaming websites available in the market. Try to include most of the important features required for live streaming. Include a feature where users can create separate channels like Twitch. Add a customization feature that each streamer can customize to make their website look different from others. Take steps to protect the user data by including security features like DRM, AES encryption, and Password protection.
Plan for Scaling
You will need a CDN to scale up your live streaming website to reach a broader audience across the globe. It means you will need a full license, but it will be well worth it. Your video files may be pre-cached, meaning the user won’t have to download them. Again, a good CDN usually offers localized data centers, meaning the foreign users won’t have to make several trans-continental electronic hops when they want to access your files.
If you try to add a CDN later on after building a live streaming website, you will have to change all of your source code and it becomes a complicated process. Avoid it and invest in a custom CDN solution for a truly robust speed.
Choose a Powerful Hosting Server
This is the next big challenge for a live streaming website where you can expect thousands of users to watch the video simultaneously at the same time. The user requires 4 Mbps to watch a 720p video in real-time. So 2.500+ users will require 10 Gbps to watch the same video simultaneously. Therefore, you need a powerful hosting server to manage thousands of users visiting the website, while you can choose a server like managed VPS hosting with SSD.
Good design:
UX designers have to be hired to make unique and modern designed websites rather than choosing a template. Front-end and back-end developers have to be hired to develop a fully functional website. But hiring a group of developers and designers to build a live streaming website from scratch needs more effort and time. So it is better to choose a live streaming platform provider that builds a live video streaming website with a user-friendly UX/UI design and powerful functionality. The website should be designed in such a way that makes things easier for users to navigate across the website. UX /UI design shoul be appealing as it plays a major role in website usability.
How to start a live streaming website?
Three main live streaming requirements that one has to consider for any live streaming website in general
- Video encoder (Flash Media Live Encoder, Flash web app);
- Media Server (Adobe Flash Media Streaming Server, VPS)
- Video Player (Flash media player, HTML5 video player)
A website like Twitch make money through advertising and paid subscription.
Advertising
Twitch gained huge popularity as a video streaming service, attracting advertisers interested in their video streaming service in a short time period. Ads appeared before starting to watch the video, and some other ads popped in between videos. Platform owners can make money based on the number of ad views and ad impressions.
Subscription
Twitch is a free platform, as users can view content and stream video online, and make a communication with other users, but to become premium users, users have to pay a small monthly amount for subscription to become turbo subscribers as there will be no ads during streaming and some additional features. Try giving different subscription plans like monthly and annual plans.
Individual streamer earning
Streamers earn some money when some of the viewers of video content click through an affiliate link of advertisements placed on their channel.
Tips to consider to make money using a live video streaming website
- Target audience: Twitch is a live video streaming service especially targeted at gamers. In the same way, your streaming platform must target a specific group of audiences, bringing all the streamers of specific interest into one platform.
2. Providing videos on higher quality
3. Make use of marketing tools to promote your platform.
Using This live streaming website to make money from it like advertising and subscription, as mentioned in the previous topic. Giving customers a free trial period of one month for publishing video content helps gain customer loyalty and satisfaction, which helps convert them into paid subscribers in the future.
Conclusion
Certainly, it’s worth considering how to make a live streaming website like Twitch. It’s a really profitable business because it pays a great way to make money. You can apply live streaming services not only for gaming but also for other live streaming activities like health advice, fitness, media and news broadcasting, etc.