The popularity of video streaming apps has increased to a greater extent as people pass their time by watching TV series and movies. In recent times, OTT platforms like Netflix are drawing more attention from internet users. Do you know what makes these apps more popular? The reason is that these platforms offer thousands of web series and movies for a wide range of audiences. Among competitors, Netflix is the most popular OTT platform. There is no surprise that Netflix has earned $18.87 billion in 2019 alone.
The business model of the Netflix app
As we know, Netflix uses a subscription-based model. This empowers the company to increase quickly. Its value proposition consists of the following four elements.
- Accessibility
The Netflix app’s video streaming is supported on almost all Operating systems, platforms, and devices. This approach widens the user’s base across the world. It is easy for users to stream their favorite content via smartphones, tablets, browsers, desktops, and laptops.
- Content
Most of the programs they offer are third-party publisher’s shows. Despite this, they are streaming some in-house programs that are exclusively available on their platform. Unique content grabs the user’s attention.
- No advertisements
Advertisements are quite irritating for all age groups of people. Taking this into consideration, they show ads only to free account users. There will be no advertisements for users who have subscribed to premium. So, this motivates users to move to premium accounts.
- Recommendations
Netflix is a big platform as they stream thousands of TV shows. They use recommendation algorithms to collect content according to the user’s search queries and display related shows. This increases user engagement.
Steps to build a successful Netflix clone app
After knowing the reach and success of Netflix, many business people have started to invest money in video streaming apps. Well, this is a great choice. Before that, you have to know the app development process.
Let’s see how to build a video streaming app like Netflix in this article. Creating an app like Netflix might seem simple, but it is not as you expect. Go through the following essential steps for the Netflix clone app development.
1.Discover your niche
Finding your niche is the first and foremost thing you have to concentrate on. Being specific with your niche is necessary. You have to be sure about what type of content (Education, Fitness, Entertainment, and much more) your app will stream.
2.Content creation
The main foundation for your video streaming app is content creation. Be aware of the content you build. Secondly, content updating and service consistency pave the way for user engagement.
3.Personalize your app and understand your audience
Cloning the same services offered by Netflix will not benefit you in the long run. So, you have to personalize the app style according to your niche. Mainly, the audience is the key to your business success. To guide your potential customers towards your app, make use of popular social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
4.Choose your monetization strategies
Netflix uses the following three monetization strategies. You can prefer any ways to make revenue from your app.
- Pay-Per-View
It is the best choice if you want to broadcast trade shows, sports events, and conferences. Users have to pay for each video they watch.
- Advertising
They are charging third-party companies for running their ads in the Netflix app. This way of approach works only if the app is already familiar with users.
- Subscription
Professional broadcasters widely use this monetization option. Subscribers have to pay some amount of money for monthly/yearly subscriptions. This strategy is preferred when you are releasing new content regularly in your app.
4.Indispensable features to include in the Netflix clone app
- Registration – It will allow users to register with your app using email, phone number, or social media account. It also includes password restoration (Forgot password link) so that whenever users forgot the password, they can reset it.
- User profiles – This feature will let the users know the recently viewed episodes and TV shows.
- Favorites – It will enable the user to add their favorite TV shows to their favorites. You can even add the Watch Later feature to turn this feature more advanced.
- Video player – Make sure that your video player works on almost all devices. Assure to use a standard file format that should be widely supported.
- Payment gateway – You have to integrate with a payment gateway so that users can quickly pay their monthly/yearly subscription fee. Using a popular payment gateway like Braintree, Stripe, and PayPal makes your user more convenient.
- Screenshot blocker – This feature will prevent users from taking screenshots and recording the screen while your app is active.
- Push notifications – Send push notifications for user engagements. Like, you can notify them about upcoming releases and recommendations about new episodes of their favorite web series or shows. You can increase the notification’s open rate by including media in it.
- Search and filters – It will allow the users to find the show by name, category, or other parameters. Predictive filters help them to show search results based on the characters they type.
- Multilingual support – Your app has to recognize the phone’s default language and changes it accordingly if you are planning to provide service to an international audience.
- Other features – Content suggestion logic, Offline functionality, Geoblocking, Ratings & reviews, and Social sharing.
5.A list of technology used for Netflix-like service
Developing the Netflix like app requires the following backend to stream seamlessly.
Languages:
- Java
- Python
- Swift
- Javascript
- Kotlin
Database
- MySQL
- Oracle
- Cassandra
Framework & Libraries
- Node.js
- React
- WinJS
Cloud services
- Amazon web service
DevOps tools
- GitHub
- Jenkins
- Apache Mesos
- Sumo Logic
Consider the following aspects during the development of the Netflix clone app
- Simple UI
Considering the video streaming app users in mind, make your app design recognizable and straightforward. You have to ensure that your app design will help users find videos they wish to watch easily.
- Format
Your chosen file format must be supported by all Operating systems and devices preferred by the users.
- Bandwidth
The most important metric to consider is bandwidth, i.e., the speed at which each video loads. There should be sufficient bandwidth so that users can stream videos without any lag. You might have appealing UI and best shows, yet users won’t wait if the video takes too long to load.
- Quality
You can offer multiple quality video options. Also, make your app change the stream quality if the user’s internet connection is unstable so that they can watch videos without buffering.
Factors determining the cost of your Netflix clone app
The exact cost of developing the Netflix clone app cannot be estimated. A list of factors that determines the app cost is given below.
- App highlights
- App plan
- App platform
- Area of app designers
With these, you might be able to determine the app cost. The expense will be more if you want to add more features/highlights. Using the ready-made custom app solution may cost you less compared to the app that you develop from scratch.
Final thoughts
So far, we covered the overall Netflix clone app development process. Suppose you find this article informative and curious to develop your app and step foot in this industry. In that case, hire a freelancer developer or approach a mobile app development company. Nowadays, app development companies are offering a ready-to-use solution that can be customized for individual business needs.