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Jean-Baptiste

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Arushi Gupta

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Product updates

api.video recently announced that it now offers [free encoding for all its users](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/video-encoding-pricing-update/)—a bold move perfectly aligned with our mission to democratize videos. 

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As a next step and to make things more transparent, we decided to take the help of some numbers and explain it to you.

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The natural thought behind video encoding is that it is expensive. That is mainly because encoding workloads demand substantial CPU resources, and CPUs can be quite costly. Consequently, encoding has traditionally incurred high costs and the higher the video resolution, the greater the CPU requirements, directly impacting encoding expenses. It seems logical that pricing should correlate with these factors, which is what experts typically anticipate.

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But that is not always the case. Read on to learn how we, at api.video, are making it possible to scrap video encoding costs for you all. 

## We build our own infrastructure
There are two common routes you can take for video encoding - Central Processing Units (CPUs) or Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). But let us accept that they are both not very affordable. Moreover, datacenter GPUs aren't primarily designed for video encoding but are rather now targeting AI tasks. And considering the popularity of AI, cloud providers are unlikely to reduce GPU prices because they can command higher rates from AI customers. That’s when a new alternative comes in: Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). These are specialized chips (Video Processing Units) designed for specific workloads and have been recently in news due to Google developing its own VPU for YouTube called Argos.

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At api.video, we build our own infrastructure that has the most advanced VPUs. With these VPUs, we are able to save power consumption costs since the power consumption cost of VPUs is one order of magnitude lower than CPUs and GPUs. It is also easily possible to pack a lot of them in a single server. This increases their density and therefore, reduces the number of servers. 

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In a nutshell, VPUs help you to encode videos at scale without costing you too much, and that is exactly why we at api.video, made the move to use VPUs for video encoding.  

## Understanding encoding costs on VPUs

api.video uses VPUs built by [Netint Technologies](https://netint.com/). Let's understand the costs with a 1080p30 video. To simplify the case, I will assume the source video codec is h.264. The output videos after transcoding will be five h.264 renditions for ABR: 1080p30, 720p30, 480p30, 360p30, 240p30.

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For a real time transcoding, let's try to sum up the number of MP/s (Megapixel per second) it represents. For the above output, it represents 62 MP/s + 28 MP/s + 12MP/s + 7MP/s + 3MP/s respectively for 1080p30, 720p30, 480p30, 360p30, 240p30 renditions. We need an encoding capacity of 112 MP/s for real time transcoding. Let us assume that the transcoding cost on VPUs is proportional to the number of pixel per frame (whatever the frame resolution) for the sake of simplicity and one VPU of Netint is able to encode 2000 MP/s in h.264. In reality it is a bit more complex but let’s take these as the numbers for a rough idea. 

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Now, as per the above assumptions, we can encode 2000/112 = 17 minutes of videos (all rendition included) per minute. Below is a table summarizing the minute cost for a server with 4 VPUs. The cost of the server is $10k and the amortization for such a server is 3 years. The electricity cost will be approx. $1000 per year (420w at $0.30 / kWh) at full consumption. Let us see what is the cost of 1 minute of a 1080p30 video transcoded to 5 renditions.

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(The cost is split taking into consideration the average usage of the server per day)

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| Avg. usage of the server in percentage | Minutes encoded over the amortization period | Cost per minute transcoded (minutes / cost of server + electricity) in $
| ------------- | ------------- | ------------- |
| 0,50%       | 536112       | 0,020
| 5%   | 5361120        | 0,002
| 25%   | 26805600        | 0,0004
| 50%   | 53611200        | 0,0002
| 90%   | 96500160        | 0,0001

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If we use the server at only 0.5% per day (i.e ~7 min per day fully loaded) the cost per minute would be at $0,020.

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If on an average, this server is loaded at 25% (6 hours a day) the cost per minute would be 1/150 of our previous price.

### What about video quality?
Hardware encoded is always associated with quality losses in the head of many video engineers. But that was probably the case decades ago.

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Not anymore.

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Let’s see how VPUs compete with CPUs in terms of quality by taking a video under [Creative Commons license](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons): Caminandes 2.

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We have uploaded its 1080p30 version via our API and will compare the quality output with a CPU encoded video with this option **-b:v 4400k -preset medium** These parameters generate a rather good quality.

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**ffmpeg -r 30 -y -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -force_key_frames 'expr:gte(t,n_forced*4)' -b:v 4400k -preset medium -c:a copy output.mp4**


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Here are the quality metrics (higher is better):

|                  | VMAF (avg) | PSNR (avg) | SSIM (avg) |
| ---------------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| api.video (VPUs) | 95.92      | 48,07      | 0.9888     |
| ffmpeg (CPUs)    | 95.33    | 48.69      | 0.990     |


The quality metrics are very closed and report a high score. The VMAF is slightly better through VPU encoding.

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In conclusion, this pricing update reflects our commitment to enhance the video streaming experience for everyone - be it individuals or organizations looking to build their video solutions. We firmly believe that by making video streaming more accessible, we empower creators, businesses, and enthusiasts alike to embark on their video streaming journeys with ease. 

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_To know any other details, [talk to our team ](https://meetings.hubspot.com/apivideo/talk-to-us) and we are here to help you out._
 


Free video encoding: Let's talk numbers

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Emilien Gobillot

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Company News

In today's world, where environmental responsibility is important, businesses are re-evaluating their impact on the planet. Sustainable practices are not just a choice; they're a responsibility. When it comes to video encoding, a crucial aspect of content delivery in our digital age, there's a technology that aligns perfectly with this responsibility - ASICs. These Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) not only promise more efficient video encoding but also contribute majorly to a lower carbon footprint.

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That’s why, api.video has gone forward and switched from CPU based encoding to ASICs based encoding.

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This blog is intended to tell you more about this switch. 

## The rise of ASICs in the video industry

In the past few years, the internet's growth sparked a rise in digital video demand. As platforms like YouTube and Netflix rose, companies leaned more toward CPU-based encoding due to its versatility. However, as streaming services gained popularity, CPU encoding's limitations started getting noticed. 

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Video encoding relying on CPU power is no longer a sustainable approach, as superior alternatives are now available that come without any compromises. A great example of this is Google. Google has developed its own Video Processing Unit (VPU) known as [Argos](https://9to5google.com/2021/04/22/youtube-google-custom-chip/) – a groundbreaking innovation. Through the integration of these VPUs, Google has significantly amplified transcoding capabilities per server, cut down operational expenses, reduced electricity consumption, and ultimately improved the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Following in Google's footsteps, Meta has also embraced this transformation. 

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What does this mean? It simply means that ASICs reduces the resource consumption of video encoding (see graph below) and that’s why companies are adopting it. 



MPixel_s per Watt encoded to H.264 (Higher is better)(1).png

Now what is the secret behind these VPUs that are replacing CPUs? VPUs are, in fact, ASICs-based chips specifically engineered for a singular purpose: decoding and encoding video frames. They support various codecs such as h.264, vp9, and AV1, among others. 

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Their power consumption is lower than that of CPUs, and their capacity is substantially greater. Consequently, you can expect VPUs to reduce electricity consumption by 10x to 100x, depending on the codec and the specific VPU in use.

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The best part is that the quality of the video output in VPUs matches that of CPU encoding. (We will delve into the technical details in an upcoming blog post.)

## What made us start ASIC based encoding at api.video

- ASICs also known as VPU (Video Processing Unit) are one order of magnitude more power efficient than CPU based transcoding. 

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- Using dedicated hardware allows us to increase the density which in turn reduces our environmental footprint. As a corollary, it increases our transcoding capacity.

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- Specialised hardware helps improve the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). When we increase the capacity and density of a server, there is a fewer requirement of servers and less rack space. So it reduces capital expenditure and operational expenditure. 

## What does this mean for you as a customer

In today's environmentally conscious world, the impact of technology on our carbon footprint is a growing concern. This is where ASIC becomes a game-changer. 

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But, you might wonder, what can you, as a customer, gain from embracing ASICs technology?

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- **First and foremost, ASIC brings sustainability to the forefront.** By significantly reducing energy consumption compared to generic hardware, ASIC chips align perfectly with your green initiatives. Your carbon footprint shrinks, making a substantial contribution to a better environment.

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- **Secondly, [you get encoding at ZERO cost ](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/video-encoding-pricing-update/) with api.video.** Yes, it is because of ASICs that we are able to reduce our TCO and offer you video encoding at no cost. This means that if you choose api.video for video streaming, you save on the cost of encoding completely. 

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- **Thirdly, ASIC's efficiency translates to faster video processing.** This means that with ASIC’s optimized infrastructure, your complex videos are encoded faster. 

## Stepping into a greener future with ASICs

To create the environmentally responsible future we desire, changes in video encoding and distribution are imperative. ASICs-powered encoders represent a breakthrough, offering enhanced density, performance, and cost-efficiency. These advancements will ensure video applications to scale economically while significantly reducing their environmental footprint.

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With this initiative, let us pledge to make a greener and a better environment around us!

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_[Sign-up](https://api.video/) with api.video today or [talk to our team](https://meetings.hubspot.com/apivideo/talk-to-us) for more information._


Introducing ASICs-based encoding at api.video

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Video trends

**The comeback of specialized hardware and its impact on the video industry**

Over the past few decades, the trend in computing has been toward general-purpose computing systems that can run a wide variety of applications. This has led to the widespread use of [CPUs and GPUs](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/processors/cpu-vs-gpu.html). However, there has been a recent resurgence of interest in specialized hardware, which is designed specifically to perform one or a few tasks extremely efficiently. In this blog post, we will explore the reasons behind this trend and some of the critical examples of specialized hardware being used in the video industry today.

**Why is specialized hardware making a comeback in computing?**

Specialized hardware in the computing industry refers to computer components or devices designed for a specific purpose, such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs)  or systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) . These hardware components are optimized for their specific task, resulting in faster and more efficient performance than general-purpose hardware.

Several factors have contributed to the recent resurgence of specialized hardware in computer science:

* **High efficiency : Why we want it quick and ressource-efficient**

One key driver is the increasing demand for high-performance solutions. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and video processing are domains where CPUs are far from being the right solution. Regarding AI workloads, training, and running models are more efficient on GPU and even better on specialized hardware like Tensor processing units (TPUs). Google has been the first to design TPUs. These ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) outperform the CPUs.

Why are CPUs outperformed ? In early 2023 commodity servers come with 1 or 2 sockets and maximum 96 cores per socket for the x86 microarchitecture (128 for ARM). On the other hand, a server with a mid range CPUs can receive several ASICs/TPUs on the PCIe ports. Those boosted systems outperforms by a lot the CPUs based system. The TPUv4, in terms of Tflops is 2000x faster than a laptop according to Google.

The benefits of a specialized hardware is that it provides better performance, higher density and a lower energy consumption than the classic CPUs.

In most cases, TPU/ASIC > GPU > CPU on the 3 criteria : performance, density, and energy savings.

* **Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Why It's Worth the cost**

Specialized hardware exhibits smaller size, higer speed, and greater electrical efficiency. As a result the density increases and the number of computing units decreases. At the end, the TCO is improved. After the switch to ASICs based VCUs (Video coding unit), Youtube is [reported](https://www.semianalysis.com/p/google-new-custom-silicon-replaces) to have saved millions of CPUs ! At this scale you also save data centers 💰

**How specialized hardware is changing the game in the video industry**

In the video industry, one of the most computationally intensive processes is video transcoding, especially for high-quality videos. Transcoding decodes a video from one codec and encodes it to another, such as from H.264 to H.265. This process can also involve changing other video parameters like resolution, bit rate, frame rate, etc. This has led to a need for fast and efficient video transcoding solutions without sacrificing the video quality output.

Transcoding is a service api.video provides in addition to hosting and delivery. Via an API call, a video is uploaded, and then the URL of the video is returned immediately. Note that high resolution and new codecs increase the computational cost.

Similarly to Artificial Intelligence (AI), several types of hardware are commonly used in video transcoding applications:

1. ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits): Video ASICs are specialized hardware accelerators designed specifically for video processing tasks, such as video encoding/ decoding / transcoding. They are sometimes called VPU (Video Processing Unit) or VCU (Video coding Unit). They significantly improve performance over traditional CPUs, particularly for high-resolution or high-frame-rate video. Alphabet, the mother company of Google and YouTube has designed its own ASICs : codename Argos. For a system with 20 VCUs, the TCO has decreased by a 33x factor for VP9 encoding, and throughput increased by a 100x factor!

Facebook/ Meta made the same move to specific hardware. They partnered with silicon vendors to [design custom ASICs](https://engineering.fb.com/2019/03/14/data-center-engineering/accelerating-infrastructure/).

The electric consumption of an ASIC is around a few watts.

2. FPGAs (Field-programmable gate arrays): FPGAs are programmable hardware devices that can be customized for specific applications, including video transcoding. They can provide significant performance improvements over traditional CPUs for certain types of video transcoding tasks, such as simultaneously encoding or decoding multiple video streams. Twitch is using an [FPGA from Xilinx](https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2018/12/19/how-v-p9-delivers-value-for-twitch-s-esports-live-streaming-35db26f6322f/).

The electric consumption is around 25 W for a PCIe card

3. Graphics processing units (GPUs): GPUs are another type of hardware. This hardware is more generic than FPGA and ASIC, but specialized video encoders/decoders are added to these cards. Nvidia was the first company to build a datacenter GPU for transcoding. Intel enters the market in late 2022.

The electric consumption is generally around 70W.

Regarding energy consumption ASICs > (are better than) FPGAs > GPU > CPU. This order is the same for the transcoding speed.

**Reducing the carbon footprint of video transcoding : api.video’s approach**

At api.video we are really focused on the energy consumption of our transcoding pipeline. We want to minimize the ecological impact of video transcoding while keeping the transcoding speed high. The infrastructure team has performed multiple benchmarks, and here are the results.

Those numbers are based on public information (marketing sheet) for the GPUs and FPGAs and real benchmarks for the CPU and ASICs. The quality of the video's output could change the results slightly, but we clearly see a winner regarding power efficiency. In a future blog post, we will share precise benchmarks about the ASICs vs. CPU battle with you. Stay tuned.

Along this article, we have seen the resurgence of dedicated hardware in computer science is driven by a growing need for high-performance computing, particularly in fields like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and video transcoding. Dedicated hardware can provide better performance and energy efficiency than traditional general-purpose computing units, making it an attractive option for many applications. As computing continues to evolve, we will likely see more specialized hardware being developed for specific tasks, driving innovation and progress in the field. 

Our video API allows you to add videos to your products while prioritizing the reduction of your carbon footprint. [Join us](https://api.video/) and take part of the transition to an environmentally responsible video infrastructure.

The comeback of specialized hardware

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Modern technology has been helpful for an increasingly fast and simple method of consuming various types of video media, whether it’s a YouTube video, our favorite shows on Netflix, or even catching up with friends across the globe on Zoom. Despite the relative ease of doing anything related to video, a few complex processes take place behind the scenes, away from public view. One such process is video encoding.

Video encoding basically makes the world go around in regards to anything related to video and video content. Thanks to the technologies behind the video encoding process, it has become much easier for people and companies to share video content on the internet. But what exactly is video encoding, and what happens during the process? We’ll take a closer look at this and much more in this handy guide to video encoding.

## What is video encoding?

In a nutshell, video encoding occurs when you take raw video footage, either from a digital camera or an analog film camera, and digitally compress it to make it a more manageable file size. Video encoding happens daily in both professional and personal capacities, and many people don’t realize it.

But, without encoding, services like Netflix and YouTube would not exist – or, at least, not in the same way that it does today. Without it, we couldn’t send videos of our beloved pets to our friends and family as easily as we can today.

## Why is video encoding used?

There are a variety of reasons why video encoding is used, but all factors point to the single function of video encoding – **compression**.

This is done to ensure optimal performance and compatibility with a selected suite of software and hardware, be it for DVD/Blu-ray playback, mobile viewing, online video streaming, or general video editing. A file's video and audio information undergo transformation and compression during the encoding process, all in accordance with the requirements of the selected encoding standard.

On a professional level, the ability to compress raw video into more manageable sizes makes it easier to transmit video content such as training, promotion, presentation, and so on over the internet. 

On a personal level, video encoding makes it much easier to send videos taken from your phone directly to friends and family. Most modern-day personal devices have built-in video encoding capabilities to allow for this to happen without a second thought.

To put things in perspective, uncompressed or unencoded video can have a data rate that’s as low as 3,000 Mbps and as high as 12,000 Mbps, depending on the length and quality of the video recorded. 

**Without encoding, it would take up to days for anyone to not just transmit video, but to be able to consume it, too.**

## Differences between video encoding and video transcoding

You need to be familiar with two more [essential terms related to video encoding](https://api.video/what-is/) – transcoding and codecs.

Transcoding relates to the conversion from one digital encoding format to another. It takes the already encoded video file, decompresses it, and then alters it before re-encoding or compressing it into a different codec. Codecs are what allow encoding to occur in the first place. They are software or hardware that gives us the ability to compress video to make them more easily stored and delivered tightly.

While you may hear “encoding” and “transcoding” used interchangeably, the two terms actually mean different things. Putting it succinctly, encoding is the initial process of compressing a video from a source – such as a camera – into a codec, while transcoding takes an already encoded video file to convert it into a different codec.

## Examples of video codecs

In order to understand video encoding, you must first be familiar with two interrelated terms: [video codecs and video formats](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/every-video-format-codec-and-container-explained/). These also tend to be used interchangeably, but much like the terms encoding and transcoding, they refer to two different things.

Video formats are the type of files in which the compressed video/audio is stored. Also known as a “container”, you can tell what a video format is by looking at the file’s extension — the three to four characters that sit after a period in a file name. Here are some of the most common video formats used today:

* MP4
* FLV
* MOV
* MKV
* LXF
* MXF
* AVI
* WebM
* QT

On the other hand, **the codec is short for “Coder / Decoder” (compression / decompression)** and relates to the video compression algorithms that allow encoding to happen. Over the years, codecs have gone through multiple iterations as it coincides with the increasing sophistication and rise in the quality of filmmaking. 

If you’re a content creator, you might be aware of some of the video codecs that exist today:

- **H.264 – also known as AVC, this is the most widely-used video codec available on every platform and mobile device.**
- H.265 – also known as HEVC, stands for High-Efficiency Video Coding, and it’s slowly overtaking H.264 as the standard. This codec can compress video much more efficiently than its predecessor.
- **VP9 – is an open-source, royalty-free codec developed by Google and is considered the direct competitor of H.265. The video compression codec VP9 was created to reduce file sizes, making streaming videos simpler.**
- **AV1 – is another royalty-free, open-source codec released in 2019 by the non-profit Alliance for Open Media. It was developed to become the successor to Google’s VP9 and contend with HEVC more directly.**

## How do different technologies handle video encoding

As you may have suspected, there are a majority of ways that different technologies handle the video encoding process. Let’s take a look at the most common technologies that use video and how video encoding works on each of them:

### Video editing software

When it comes to video content creation, a majority of people will use one of two video editing software — Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple’s Final Cut Pro. Both of these video editing software handle video encoding in very similar ways: when exporting the finished video.

Depending on which device the video content is recorded on, it will already be encoded and formatted according to the settings of the device. For those using iPhones recording 1080p video at 25 frames per second (FPS), for example, the iPhone will automatically encode the video using H.264 and contain it in a .mov file format. The video editing software will “open up” the container to get to the encoded, compressed video file within so the editing process can begin.

After editing the footage is complete, it will need to be exported, which typically concerns video encoding. The edited raw media taken from a recording device such as a camera will be encoded via the codec of the person’s choosing before being put into a .mp4 container once they’ve hit “export”. As we’ve mentioned before, the most common codec used in video content creation is H.264 for HD videos, with 4K videos using H.265. 

### Websites

Different websites utilize different techniques to handle video encoding – with a majority of the major sites like YouTube, Netflix, and so on using their own technologies to handle the process. A majority of social media websites allow you to upload video files directly onto the site to share, although most of them require the files to be saved in specific containers. 

These websites will take your video file and transcode it before using their own systems and serves to re-encode it to match multiple display resolutions. This process will happen regardless of your video file's original codec and settings. Different websites have different processes, but companies that don’t have the capacity to build their own video encoding systems can use a third-party application programming interface (or API) to handle this process. These APIs act as [dedicated video encoder](https://api.video/what-is/video-encoding/) that allows companies to add on-demand videos to their websites more efficiently.

Using [api.video](https://api.video) as an example, all of the videos submitted to the platform will be transformed into H.264 codec in an MP4 container. This may be done using transmuxing and/or transcoding.

We expect the video bitrate to be lower than 16 Mbps for up to 1080p resolution and 50 Mbps for up to 4K resolution. We accept any bitrates, however, we will scale them down to the limits mentioned because anything above is usually challenging for most viewers’ connection to watch.

### API

The ability to generate, store, and distribute video is made possible via a video API. [api.video](https://api.video)’s solution can be tailored to suit any specific need. 

The backend process of video on demand (VOD) is exceptionally complex, even if you’re a software programmer specializing in video. It is necessary to encode, package, and typically transcode the data before sending it to any of several possible destinations. All of these things, and more, may be done with minimal fuss using api.video.

Our API basically keeps the complexities of streaming media hidden from view, so you can rapidly develop apps with as much control as you need. This saves time and effort so developers can concentrate on making the product.

## Conclusion

As you can see through this video encoding guide, a lot of work goes into making the video you watch and the video you share possible. Without video encoding compressing raw video footage, it could take days to upload and transmit video content over the internet and perhaps even longer to be able to download and enjoy them. 

The best part about encoding at api.video is that is offered at ZERO cost. You will only be charged for delivery and hosting of your videos, and the encoding will be free. Now integrate your videos in minutes with api.video or [contact us](https://api.video/contact/) for more information.

A Guide to Video Encoding & Video Codecs

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Doug Sillars

Once I upload my video, how quickly will it be ready to be viewed?

Our reply to this question has always been “it's really fast.”  And it is really fast. But, the dev team gave me access to the backend database, and pointed me to a few tables that might be helpful (thanks to Thomas Persohn for your patient help!)

Thus armed, I waded into a sea of data to better understand how fast our videos are encoded at api.video

## Encoding

When a video is uploaded to api.video, it is re-encoded to a HLS stream, with several different video dimensions and bitrates.  This allows api.video to deliver properly sized video to all users - no matter the device or network connection. (Read our post on [Responsive video delivery](https://api.video/blog/video-trends/responsive-video-delivery/) to learn more.)

> Summary:  All videos are encoded at 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p and 2160p. However, the videos are only encoded up to the initial size of the video (so if the original video is 720p, there will not be 1080p or 2160p versions available). 

**FYI:** For our customers, encoding is absolutely free – we offer adaptive bitrate encoding at zero cost. 

How long does this step take? If a customer uploads a video to our service - they want to know how efficient api.video creates the content for viewing.

### Data in the study

We are constantly making adjustments to our infrastructure to speed the encoding step of our video (and that is one reason this post is dated 2H 2020 - we expect to be faster in early 2021). The last major adjustment was made in mid October, so the data presented in this study from every video uploaded to the api.video service between 15 October and 2 December 2020.

### Parameters that affect encoding

There are 2 major parameters that affect the speed of encoding a new video stream: the output dimensions and the length (duration) of the video.  

#### Dimensions

The output video dimensions have a huge impact on video creation - a 3840 × 2160 (or 4K or 2160p) video has millions more pixels than a 320x240 (240p) video, so it takes a lot longer to create.  In general, the videos exit the encoding process from smallest to largest.

#### Duration

If a video is 30 frames per second, and is 60 seconds long, there are 1800 frames to be created.  If a 30 frame per second video is an hour long 3600s), there are 108,000 frames to be created, so the longer the video - the more time for creation.

## Analysis

To better understand the encoding time, I divided the data by the size of the output video size, and looked at 2 lengths of video  - those under 5 minutes, and videos that are 45-75 minutes long (we are often asked how long a 1 hour video takes to encode).

I calculated encoding time for each bucket of video using percentiles.  

> Quick review - percentiles break the data into 100 evenly sized segments, so the 25th percentile is when 25% of the videos have been encoded. The median is the 50th percentile, and is when 50% of videos have been encoded.  We report here to the 95th percentile for video encoding.

### Short videos - under 5 minutes long

Many of the videos uploaded to api.video are short - under 5 minutes long.  These videos are generally ready to play in a few seconds:



The above chart has a lot of data, the 25, 50, 75, 90 and 95th percentile encoding times for all 6 variants of the video that api.video creates.

The median video is ready to play (at 240p) in 5.6 seconds, but a 720p version will be ready in 15s after encoding begins, and the 4K version will be ready in 37 seconds.

95% of all videos (under 5 minutes) will be playable in 32.6s, and will have 1080p versions ready in just over 2 minutes (140s).

### Long videos - 45 - 75 minutes long

Our most frequently asked question on encoding is "how long for a 1 hour video to be encoded and ready?"  Here are the numbers:


Observant viewers will see there are no 4K videos in this report. At this time, there are very few 4K streams that reach the 1 hour timeframe, and the data was quite noisy.  Hopefully, more of our 'long uploads' will add 4K support, so we can add this metric in our next update.

The median hour long video (red line) will be ready to play (at 240p) in just over 9 minutes (555s), and a 720p version will be ready about 18 minutes after encoding begins (1099s).

95% of hour long videos will have a 240p version ready in 33 minutes, and 720p in 54 (3230s).  the 1080p version will be available for 95% of videos in 108 minutes,

## Conclusion

Short videos will be ready to play - even at high resolution - in under a minute: the median 4K encoding for a short video is 37s. 

Hour long videos take longer to encode, and the median 720p video will be ready in 18 minutes.  95% of 720p videos will be ready to play in 54 minutes.

This is really fast! You can have responsive streaming video ready for your customers in just a few minutes with a simple upload!

That said, our team is working hard in the background to improve our infrastructure to make our encoding speeds even faster! 

We're really excited to have hard numbers to share with you on our encoding speeds, and we cannot wait to re-benchmark this data in 2021 to see how much faster your videos will be encoded as we improve our service.

Do you have questions about api.video or video encoding? Reach out on our [community page](https://community.api.video).


How fast does api.video encode video? 2H 2020 data

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ASICs-based encoding: Building a greener tomorrow through reduced carbon footprint

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Cédric Montet

At api.video, our goal is for video to be easy and affordable for anyone to build, be it individuals or organizations. We understand that achieving this goal means reducing costs at some stage of the video streaming process. That’s why, we now offer adaptive bitrate encoding for your videos at zero cost. 

&nbsp;

Yes, you heard me right. 

&nbsp;

**Encoding videos will be absolutely free for all video qualities (1080p or 4K) at [api.video](https://api.video/) - no hidden calculations, footer notes or tricks.**

(Check out this [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouosgLbW7Ts) for more details) 


## A step towards making video streaming affordable

Video encoding is crucial as it makes it possible for videos to be shared and played smoothly on the internet. It is why we are easily able to consume various types of video media, whether it’s a YouTube video, our favorite shows on Netflix, or even catching up with friends across the globe on Zoom. Video encoding basically makes the world go around in regards to anything related to video and video content.

&nbsp;

We at api.video recognize that. From [increasing the transcoding and playback speed ](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/2021-in-review/)to building [specialized hardware like ASICs](https://api.video/blog/video-trends/the-comeback-of-specialized-hardware/) cards to increase our transcoding capacities, we've been working to make video streaming easier for you every day. And after dedicating ample time to engaging with our customers and learning about their concerns, free encoding seemed to be the next step in this direction. 

&nbsp;

So, we worked tirelessly behind the scenes to give you what no one else will - free encoding for all video qualities, be it 360p or 4K. 

## How does free video encoding benefit you as a customer

The benefit is straightforward: you save a LOT of money!

&nbsp;

- With free video encoding, you will have one less thing to worry about. As you know, you pay for three things for streaming videos — encoding, hosting, and delivery – out of which encoding is the most expensive, especially if you have a lot of videos. Free video encoding will allow you to focus your attention and resources to what is most important.

&nbsp;

- As the video needs of your app users grow, you might need to scale up your encoding capacity. Free video encoding services will give you the power to scale without any additional costs, meaning your users can handle more videos without increasing your expenses.

&nbsp;

- You can [migrate from your previous provider to api.video](https://api.video/compare/azure-media-services/) without paying an ‘entry tax’ to us. With free video encoding, you no longer need to spend money on encoding videos with a new provider when you have already paid for encoding with an older one.

&nbsp;

Now with all the saved cost, you can allocate your resources and money to a place where it is actually important – building your product and delighting your users. 

## How to get started

To use the free video encoding benefit, getting started is easy. 

&nbsp;

- If you’re a new user, [sign-up](https://dashboard.api.video/register) for a free sandbox account and start uploading your videos
- If you are looking to migrate from another vendor, [import](https://import.api.video/) your videos from your current vendor
- If you have any questions, [talk to us](https://meetings.hubspot.com/apivideo/talk-to-us) by booking a slot in our calendar

&nbsp;

To know more about our[ features](https://api.video/features/), [pricing](https://api.video/pricing/) or ask any other questions, [talk to our team ](https://meetings.hubspot.com/apivideo/talk-to-us)and we will help you out. 

&nbsp;

Or, you can straightaway [sign-up](https://dashboard.api.video/register) for a free sandbox account and check our product out for yourself. 


Huge pricing update: Introducing video encoding at no cost

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Erikka Innes

Encoding and transcoding are often used interchangeably but they have slightly different definitions. **Encoding is the initial process of converting raw video files into a specific digital format or codec.** It involves compressing and packaging the video data, often to reduce file size while maintaining acceptable quality. Encoding prepares the video for storage, transmission, or playback.

&nbsp;

**Transcoding, on the other hand, involves converting a video from one digital format or codec to another.** This is typically done to optimize the video for different devices or platforms, adapt to varying network conditions, or ensure compatibility with specific playback requirements. Transcoding occurs after encoding and often involves changing resolution, bitrates, or formats without altering the content itself.

## What goes on behind encoding a video?

It's easy to say that encoding is when you go from an _uncompressed source_ to a _compressed source_, but you may ask, what exactly do compressed and uncompressed sources mean?

&nbsp;

Uncompressed sources are video files that contain data that comes directly from a camera sensor vs. encoded video. In the digital space, it's SDI (Serial Digital Interface) or HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface). Both of them are popular standards. You'll find HDMI in places like your GoPro camera, or a mini camcorder. These days, you might also find HDMI in professional settings, but SDI is more common due to its reliability. Another example of an uncompressed source would be something analog, for instance, VHS tapes.

&nbsp;

A compressed sources, on the other hand, are video files that have undergone compression during the encoding process. Compression involves reducing the file size by removing unnecessary information or encoding the data in a more efficient format. This process results in a smaller file size, making it more manageable for storage, transmission, and playback.


## What are the types of transcoding methods?

There are three types of transcoding, depending on what you are trying to do to get a video to suit a particular browser, player, or platform:

* **Lossless-to-lossless** - This type of transcoding maintains the quality of your video across formats but allows you to take advantage of better hardware or compression algorithms. 
* **Lossless-to-lossy** - This type of transcoding will decrease your video in quality, but it will benefit you in ways such as – you will get a smaller and/or faster playing file, or a file that is compatible with the requirements of a particular platform, player, or browser.
* **Lossy-to-lossless** - Sometimes people think this means they are regaining quality. This isn't the case in this type of transcoding. If you transcode from a lossy format to a lossless format, all that it means is that you will not lose additional quality in the conversion process. You will not regain data you already lost through compression.

## Codecs for encoding and transcoding

For both encoding and transcoding, you will need to make use of codecs. A codec's job is to compress and decompress video files. It's right there in the name -  **co**mpress **dec**ompress or encode decode. So basically, codec is an algorithm that takes the video and shrinks it or changes it into a format that makes it compatible with the requirements of wherever you want the video to play. There are many codecs because there are many ways to compress a video or livestream for playback.



## What is transmuxing?

Now that you know the difference between encoding and transcoding, let's throw one more term in there - transmuxing. Transmuxing is when you change the container for a video instead of the format. It's a way of repackaging a video to make it compatible somewhere without changing what's in the file. 

&nbsp;

This process is faster than encoding or transcoding and takes less computing power because you only change the container, not the file. It's great when you need to quickly make something available, but the downside is that it doesn't handle things like making multiple video resolutions available. If you choose a container type that's incompatible with your video file, you may also cause compatibility issues, resulting in not being able to play the video.

## In closing

* **Encoding** - Encoding happens when you compress a raw data file from a video camera sensor or an analog source like a VHS tape. 
* **Transcoding** - Transcoding happens when you take an already compressed video file and change it to another format.
* **Transmuxing** - Transmuxing happens when you change the container of a video file but leave the video file untouched. 

We hope that explains the difference between encoding and transcoding clearly. 

_If you are looking for an affordable video API solution that does not burn a hole in your pocket for transcoding and encoding videos, check out our offerings on our [homepage](https://api.video/) or [sign-up for a free account here](https://dashboard.api.video/register)!_

Encoding and transcoding: what's the difference? 

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Huge pricing update! Introducing video encoding at zero cost

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Doug Twitter

Videos are generally ready to play in a few seconds

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how long for a 1 hour video to be encoded and ready?

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In a world where attention spans are shorter than an Instagram cat video, integrating videos into your product can be your secret weapon to grab eyeballs, build connections, and turn clicks into conversions. But with the immense information available on the internet, how do you filter the best video API for your business? 

&nbsp;
 
Here’s a list of top 5 video APIs, with detailed information about what they do and their pros and cons. Let’s start! 

&nbsp;
 

## What are video APIs and why do I need them?

Video APIs are tools that let you add video capabilities to your products or services without building everything from scratch. They handle complex tasks like uploading, encoding, streaming, and playback, saving time and effort. Using video APIs means quicker and cost-effective integration, enhancing user experience with engaging video content. You could be using video APIs for boosting customer engagement or creating a feature-rich app – in both cases, they do the job of simplifying the process, making your offering more appealing and competitive.

&nbsp;

## The best video APIs in 2023

Let us look at the top 5 video APIs that will help you manage your videos and live-streams efficiently.

&nbsp;

### **1. Api.video**

[Api.video](https://api.video/) ranks at the top when it comes to building an app for live streaming videos or creating video-on-demand. The video API lets you build on-demand and livestream videos directly from your application, website or software. What makes api.video the best video streaming API is its scalability, [easy-to-understand documentation](https://docs.api.video/), and affordable [pricing.](https://api.video/pricing/). We also recently launched the Analytics feature – that helps you analyze your users, videos, and live streams.

&nbsp;

Another unique [feature](https://api.video/features/) of api.video is that it does not increase the prices with improvement in quality, that is – we charge you the same for 480 p and 4K resolution. There's also zero platform fee and you only pay for what you use. With volume discounts in place, your costs decrease when the volume increases. 

&nbsp;

**Pros:**

&nbsp;

- Simple and extremely user-friendly API for video hosting and streaming.
- Real-time analytics for viewer engagement.
- Built-in transcoding and adaptive streaming.
- Pay-as-you-go pricing model so you pay only for what you use
- Ability to white-label your videos

&nbsp;
 
**Cons:**

&nbsp;
 
- You need a developer to implement the video API 

&nbsp;
 

_Don’t believe what we say? [Talk to our team](https://meetings.hubspot.com/apivideo/talk-to-us) or [sign-up ](https://dashboard.api.video/register)for a sandbox box and test the features of api.video for yourself._

&nbsp;
 
### **2. Vimeo**

Vimeo is one of the most popular video streaming API. It is a valuable asset for businesses aiming to incorporate video into their business models without requiring dedicated technical resources of their own. It uses multiple languages like PHP, Python, and Node.js, making it usable by and accessible to a larger variety of businesses. Vimeo is so popular also because of its features of Video Player API, Upload API and Embed API, which give the user immense flexibility of options while creating and editing their content.

&nbsp;

**Pros:**

&nbsp;
 
- Robust video management and organization.
- Customizable video player and embed options.
- Rich video analytics for insights into viewer behavior.
- Privacy settings and access controls.
- Integration possibilities with applications and workflows.
- Offers APIs for developers.

&nbsp;
 

**Cons:**

&nbsp;
 
- Costs can vary based on storage, bandwidth, and features.
- Limited free tier with some restrictions.
- Dependency on an external service for streaming.

### **3. Wowza**

The API provides a range of features, including adaptive bitrate streaming, real-time analytics, and customizable player options. Wowza Video API simplifies the complexities of video streaming, enabling users to deliver high-quality content to global audiences with ease. You could be building interactive live events or deploying video-on-demand services, Wowza Video API is a good option for building video streaming experiences.

&nbsp;
 

**Pros:**

&nbsp;
 
- Advanced streaming capabilities for both live streaming and video-on-demand.
- Scalable infrastructure that can accommodate various streaming demands.
- Customizable video players to align with branding.
- Support for multi-platform compatibility, reaching a wider audience.
- Low latency streaming for real-time applications.
- Security features, including secure streaming and authentication.
- Analytics and monitoring tools for insights.

&nbsp;

**Cons:**

&nbsp;
 
- Complex for those new to streaming APIs.
- Higher costs for advanced features.

### 4. **Muvi**

Muvi Video API is one among the best API for video streaming as it lets developers easily integrate video streaming capabilities into their websites or apps without much technical complexity. It provides a simple and user-friendly solution to stream videos, manage content, and offer an immersive viewing experience to users. With Muvi Video API, you can customize your video player, securely deliver content, and even monetize your videos through pay-per-view or subscription models. 

&nbsp;

**Pros:**

&nbsp;
 
- End-to-end video streaming solution covering content hosting to monetization.
- Customizable platform for creating branded apps and websites.
- Multi-device compatibility.
- Built-in security features.
- No revenue-sharing model, allowing you to keep your earnings.

&nbsp;

**Cons:**

&nbsp;
 
- Slightly complex for setting up and managing a full-fledged streaming platform.
- Potentially higher costs for comprehensive features.

### 5. **Twilio**

Twilio Video API stands out for its versatility, allowing smooth integration of video communication across various platforms like web, mobile, and IoT devices. It offers a wide range of communication options beyond standard video chat, such as multi-party conferencing, screen sharing, and recording. Additionally, Twilio's robust infrastructure ensures low-latency and high-quality video streams, making it ideal for real-time applications like virtual events, online collaboration, and telemedicine. The API's reliable global reach, multi-platform support, and extensive developer tools make it an apt as a comprehensive and powerful solution for video communication needs.

&nbsp;
 

**Pros:**

&nbsp;
 
- Comprehensive communication platform that includes video capabilities.
- Scalable and reliable infrastructure.
- APIs for embedding video into applications.
- Integration with other Twilio communication tools.

&nbsp;
 

**Cons:**

&nbsp;
 
- Primarily designed for communication with video as an added feature.
- Might require additional development effort to fully integrate video functionality.

&nbsp;

Video APIs have changed how we engage with online videos. These tools easily add video features to apps, sites, and services, letting developers create interactive video experiences. Live streaming, playback, and content analysis become simple with video APIs, improving viewing. 

&nbsp;
 

Now that you know all about video APIs and the best recommendations for the same, let’s get streaming! 

&nbsp;
 

_[Sign-up](https://dashboard.api.video/register) for a free sandbox account to try out api.video’s video API, or [talk to our team](https://meetings.hubspot.com/apivideo/talk-to-us) to get a demo._



These 5 Powerful Video APIs can help you Boost your Business

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Analytics

Video Sessions (Analytics)

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Tutorials

In the classic movie *Field of Dreams*, a mysterious voice whispers to Kevin Costner “if you build it, they will come.”  


<video autoplay muted loop>
		<source src="https://media.giphy.com/media/gZuxOq7zSL5DO/giphy.mp4">
</video><br/><br/>


His belief of this statement completely transformed his life and drove him to build a baseball stadium in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa… and they came…<br/>


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</video><br/><br/>


## If you Stream it...

You've created some awesome videos, and uploaded them to api.video.  Great work - it looks awesome.  

Here is a video that we posted in our blog post announcing our new video player:

<iframe src="https://embed.api.video/vod/viTLpKB231ATWOWjkHgi9bf#autoplay#loop" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<br/><br/>

## ...Who will come?

Eventually you want to know, how many people came to see my video?  What can I learn about them? Enter api.video’s powerful [video analytics](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Analytics) API. Using the API, we can transfer all of the view data form our videos into our favourite database, and learn about the viewers of our videos.

Let’s start with grabbing the viewing details for a video. In this case, I’ll use this Planets video that my daughter recorded for her class on astronomy:

<iframe src="https://embed.api.video/vod/vi16NDdXmGxk5QSggW54qw0v#autoplay#loop"  frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

The url for this video is: https://embed.api.video/vod/vi16NDdXmGxk5QSggW54qw0v

First I must [authenticate](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/authentication-tutorial/) myself at API.video, and I receive an access token that is good for an hour.

With the token, I can use the videoId to request all of the view information about my video with the [analytics API](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Analytics).  The videoId for the video is the value at the end of the url (vi16NDdXmGxk5QSggW54qw0v):




In this case, I am requesting 25 results per page, and page one of the data.  That’s actually fine, since I know there are only 19 views on this video.  

The JSON result is pretty long, but here is what one entry looks like:


To me, this is super cool.  A person in Vietnam, using Firefox on Ubuntu, watched this video in June!  And there are 18 more of these to look at and to parse.

### Demo

We have created a demo that takes a videoId and counts the country, device and browser for each view, and places the results on a page. You can try it out at [whoswatched.a.video](https://whoswatched.a.video).

In order to look at the data, I am going to suck the JSON file into Couchbase - a database that uses JSON to create a "table" format similar to SQL. This will allow me to run queries on the JSON much like one would run a database query.

### Creating a database in Couchbase:

Download and install [Couchbase](https://www.couchbase.com/) on your computer.  When the install is complete, you’ll have an admin dashboard open in your browser (on my Mac it is running on localhost:8901).  We’d like to add in our api.video JSON file into a data bucket.  To create the bucket - navigate to the Bucket section and click the "ADD BUCKET" button. I have the memory set at the minimum 100 MB (there are all of 19 entries after all!).


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Great - now we have our data bucket added.  Now we’ll want to import the JSON from api.video, so we can do our analysis.  This is done in the terminal using the ```cbimport``` command:

My username is Administrator with password 123456 (Google Chrome is mighty peeved about my use of an insecure password on localhost), adding a json file into the videoStats bucket.  Each video view has a sessionId, so I use that as a unique key.

I get a success message in my terminal, and looking back at the Couchbase admin panel under Documents, I can see each entry from the JSON has been added:


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Now we must index the data. In the Query Editor, enter:

Now we can do data analysis of our video views. For example, to understand the number of views per country:

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That’s pretty cool!  


## Live Stream Analytics

We can do exactly the same thing with live stream analytics. Note: these only show “views” of a live stream.  If you run a live stream and no one watches - there will be no analytics reported.  Further - if your live streams are saved as video on demand (VOD) for later use - any VOD analytics are saved with the newly created VOD video, and will have no connection to the original live stream.

Let’s look at a live stream that has a number of views.  On the [api.video](https://api.video) homepage, we have a demo that allows you to livestream right from the homepage.  The live streamer then “watches” their stream in the browser at the same time that they are broadcasting - guaranteeing that every live stream gets at least one viewer (in the same location as the live streamer!)

The API call is similar to that of the VOD request, I just use the 'live-streams' endpoint as opposed to the 'videos' endpoint I used above.

### GeoLocation  


The live stream demo is hosted in North America and in Europe, and we use geolocation to direct our users to the correct server. Let’s see how well our load balancers are doing. Traffic directed to North America is on the left, and European traffic is on the right:


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It looks like our load balancing is doing a bang up job. :)


Combining the two sets of data (I just created a new bucket with all the data added) allows us to see that api.video’s home page has been live streaming all around the world:


Couchbase results in Google Sheets to create this chart.

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### Devices & browsers

Most of the streams are from desktop machines. All 28 phone instances correspond directly to 28 Android devices.(This is due to a limitation in Safari that prevents the demo from working on any iOS device.)  Of our Android users, we see 25 using Chrome, 1 Samsung Internet, 1 Opera (and one hidden variant.)

Desktop users are mostly Windows and Mac (and pretty evenly distributed), but also a good number on Linux/Ubuntu).


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## Conclusion


The video analytics offered by api.video allow you to better understand who is consuming your content. In this post, we've walked through the steps to extract the data using the Analytics API in JSON format, and then ingested the data into a database for fast and easy queries.  

We used this data to see how the live stream demo on the api.video home page was used in July 2020.

How are you using api.video's analytics? Drop us a note in the [community forum](https://community.api.video) with your use cases!

Analytics with api.video

next.js

api video plugin

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GitHub Yohann

LinkedIn Yohann

Yohann Martzolff

JavaScript

Typescript

Next.js

React

No doubt, Next.js is one of the best React framework for full-stack web applications.

What if you want to create your own video application? A Next.js boilerplate with all [api.video](https://api.video) features is ready for you to begin your journey 🧑‍💻 

## What’s a boilerplate 🤔

A boilerplate is a unit of writing that can be reused without change. The idea is sometimes applied to reusable programming, and that’s the case here: our Next.js boilerplate is a starter pack containing all [api.video](https://api.video) features that anybody can use, without having to change anything in it to start a new project. 

Of course, you are free to modify anything once your application is running!

## What can I achieve with this boilerplate 🥇

After the boilerplate has been bootstrapped, you can run your brand-new application and enjoy [api.video](https://api.video) features!

Upload videos, display them as a list, and play any video in a fully customizable player.

[api.video](https://api.video) proposes many more endpoints to manage and create a complete video application.
Check [our documentation](https://docs.api.video/) to learn about this.

## Get started 🏁

Find out about ***[how to use our boilerplate](https://github.com/vercel/next.js/tree/canary/examples/with-apivideo)*** on the README file, or follow the guide bellow 👇 

1. Create a new Next.js application by running one of the following commands in a new terminal and following the command prompts.

2. Rename the `.env.local.example` file with `.env`.
3. Find your API key in the [api.video](https://api.video) dashboard [API keys section](https://dashboard.api.video/project-settings/api-keys) and add its value to the API_KEY environment variable in the `.env` file.

💡 If you don’t already have an api.video account, create a free one [here](https://dashboard.api.video/register).

4. Start your application by running `yarn dev` in your terminal, and voilà!

You should be able to see a basic sample app from where you can upload videos and see them as a list.

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Everything in this application is set up to build a complete video application, from Next.js to api.video, enjoy coding! 

Find the full boilerplate in the official Next.js repository [right here](https://github.com/vercel/next.js/tree/canary/examples/with-apivideo).

Start your video project with api.video Next.js boilerplate

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api.video Next.js boilerplate: start your video project the easy way

Boost your business with these 5 powerful video APIs

A recent HubSpot marketing report declared [short-form video](https://api.video/use-cases/short-form/) as the most popular and effective social media content format this year! It also said that as per its research, [33% of marketers ](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/hubspot-blog-marketing-industry-trends-report)plan to invest more in short-form video than any other type of social media strategy.

&nbsp;

It seems that the fever of short form videos does not end with marketing specialists but reaches developers and businesses as well. Today, the explosive success of TikTok has inspired many developers to start the journey of the creation of similar apps. But let us all accept it, building a short video app is no small task and it comes with a range of technical challenges.

&nbsp;

In this blog, we'll look into 10 key things that you should consider as you begin the journey of creating a short video app.

&nbsp;

**1. Scalability and performance:** Short video apps are known for their viral nature, which can lead to fast user growth and increase in concurrent users. While building a short video app, ensure that your app can handle this load without compromising performance. Use robust backend architecture, make use of content delivery networks (CDNs), and implement efficient caching mechanisms to manage high traffic loads.

&nbsp;

**2. Video uploading and processing:** Enabling users to upload and share videos with ease is at the core of a short video app. But do not forget that processing and transcoding videos in real-time can require a lot of resources. Implementing a reliable video processing pipeline that handles various video formats, resolutions, and aspect ratios is a big challenge. You can think of utilizing cloud-based transcoding services to offload some of this processing.

&nbsp;

**Did you know?**
_Short-form videos are 2.5 times more engaging than long-form!_

&nbsp;

**3. Content discovery and personalization:** One of the reasons for TikTok's success is its effective content recommendation system - that is, which videos are going to be recommended to which audience. Developing a similar system requires complex algorithms that analyze user behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns. Collaborative filtering, content embeddings, and machine learning models can be a great way to create a personalized content discovery experience for your users.

&nbsp;

**4. Real-time Interactions and notifications:** Short form videos depend a lot on user engagement — likes, comments, shares, and real-time interactions — because this is how the end users will interact with the videos. Therefore, making arrangements for real-time features, such as live comments, notifications, and in-app chat is important. Use a robust backend infrastructure for this and take the help of integration of technologies like WebSockets or MQTT to ensure seamless communication between users.

&nbsp;

**Did you know?**
_Short-form video ad revenue is expected to surpass $10 billion in the coming years_



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**5. User-generated content moderation:** Maintaining a safe and welcoming environment is very important in any social app. Ensure that you develop an effective content moderation system that detects and filters out inappropriate or violating content. Combining automated AI-based content analysis with manual review processes can help create the right balance between automation and human checks.

&nbsp;


**6. Cross-platform compatibility:** Short video apps aim to reach a wide audience across various devices and platforms. Keep in mind to build an app that delivers consistent user experience on iOS, Android, and the web. This will require careful consideration of responsive design, platform-specific optimizations, and maintaining feature parity across different platforms.

&nbsp;

**Did you know?**
_73% of customers prefer watching a short-form video to find out about a service or product_



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**7. Video storage and delivery:** Storing and delivering a vast amount of short-form content efficiently is a technical challenge. Choose cloud-based storage solutions that provide scalability and low-latency access to videos. CDNs play a crucial role in delivering videos quickly to users, regardless of their geographic location.

&nbsp;

**8. Monetization strategies:** Implementing effective monetization strategies while keeping the user experience intact is a delicate balance. Advertisements, in-app purchases, and premium features are common approaches. Integrate these into the app with careful planning and consideration of user preferences.

&nbsp;

**Did you know?**
_In 2023, 90% of global advertisers will increase their investment in short-form videos._



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**9. Data privacy and security:** Short video apps collect a considerable amount of user data, including personal information and engagement patterns. Ensure that you meet robust data privacy and security measures, comply with regulations like GDPR or CCPA, and safeguard user data from breaches; this should be a top priority throughout the development process.

&nbsp;

**10. Intellectual property and copyright concerns:** User-generated content means intellectual property and copyright challenges have to be taken care of. Build a mechanism to detect and resolve copyright infringement while respecting user rights. Integrate features that allow content creators to control the use of their content and provide clear guidelines for users to understand copyright policies.

&nbsp;

**Did you know?**

_96% of video marketers say video marketing has increased user understanding of their product or service._

## How api.video enables you to build a short-form video app


### 1. All-in-one platform that provides everything in one place

With api.video, you get all the important tools required to build your app at one place — player, encoder, a strong content delivery network (CDN), storage, and analytics — so that you don’t waste time in hiring a resource for integrating each of the above. This saves your manpower cost, time, and effort. 


### 2. Easy to implement documentation

Get  a clearly written, easy-to-understand documentation that can be used by developers to integrate videos and live streams to any section of your website, or app without much hassle! Read [how to get started with VOD In 5 minutes](https://docs.api.video/vod/get-started-in-5-minutes).

### 3. Cost effective at scale

With api.video, you are not charged any platform fee and you pay for what you use. With volume discounts, your [costs decrease when the volume of videos increases.](https://api.video/pricing/)

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### 4. Gives you the ability to white-label your videos

Api.video lets your users share videos with their watermarked logo on each video.
You can also add branding within your app by adding your logo to the video player, or using a domain of your choice.

### 5. Integration with your favorite platforms

Use api.video with Bubble, Strapi, Contentful, and 10+ marketplaces to build video solutions on desktop and mobile without writing a single line of code.

### 6. Video tech that scales with you

More users = More videos + More streaming. With api.video, you get scalable servers to ensure that you reach millions of users across the globe. 

### 7. Real-time analytics

With api.video, you also get a complete overview of your users, videos, and live streams with real-time analytics by location, date, device, browser, time, and more.

&nbsp;

In conclusion, creating a short video app like TikTok presents you with some technical challenges that require careful consideration and strategic planning. By choosing the right platform to build your app, you can reduce these technical challenges to a large extent. 

&nbsp;

So, are you ready to create your short form video app that has the potential to rise like TikTok? 

&nbsp;

**[
Sign-up for a free sandbox account](https://dashboard.api.video/register) to try out the product, or digg into [our short-form use case](https://api.video/use-cases/short-form/).**



Making a short video app like TikTok: 10 things you must keep in mind

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captions

Captions increase your video's audience. Viewers spend more time watching captioned videos, many people watch videos with the sound off, and you can draw viewers who don't speak the spoken language of your video if you include subtitles. See ["Why You Should Caption Your Videos, Whether They're Classes, Speeches, or Entertainment"](https://api.video/blog/video-trends/why-you-should-caption-your-videos-whether-they-re-classes-speeches-or-entertainm/) if you want all the details and statistics for why you should consider captions for your video content. Another great reason to add captions, is it's easy to do with api.video and Maestra! Let's get started. 

## Prerequisites

* [api.video account](https://dashboard.api.video/register)
* Maestra account (click the blue **Get Started Free** button)
* Sample video with spoken audio (we used one of Doug for this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3C7_kgwrPY, but any video is fine as long as it has clear audio) 

Maestra, auto captions, subtitles, caption a video, subtitle a video

maestra1.png

1. Click **New Subtitle** to bring up the upload panel.
2. On the upload panel under Upload your files, click **My Device**. 
3. For the Select audio language section, we choose **English** because the video is in English. The drop-down offers a 'Most Used Languages' section and an 'All Languages' section. 
4. You can choose different settings. For this walkthrough, we choose **Translate captions to another language** and then for the target language, choose **Spanish**. If you want different settings you can put those instead. 
5. Click **Submit**. 
6. Your video will start transcribing. Once it's complete, click on the title of your video. You can see how well your transcription came out. In this case, it came out pretty well.

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7. The next step is to export a copy of the file with the captions we want. Click the **Export** button in the upper right corner. You'll get a screen listing various choices, including downloading a video with all your captions included. We just want to get a WebVTT file for this walkthrough.
8. Make sure you are on the **Subtitle** tab. 
9. Under Languages, check the **English** and the **Spanish** box. 
10. Click **WebVTT** to download your caption file. The first time you click it, it will say **Ready**. The second time, it downloads a **.zip** file with your information in it. 
11. When you open the **.zip** file, you'll see a caption file in English and one in Spanish. Save these. 

## Add the Video to api.video
We need to add our video to api.video before we can caption it. You have a few choices available to you: 

* [Delegated Uploads for Videos Large and Small](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/delegated-uploads-for-videos-large-and-small-python/) - This tutorial shows you how to use a delegated token to upload a large or small file using Python.
* [Upload a Video From Your Computer](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/upload-a-video-from-your-computer-with-the-api-video-api-python/) - Upload a video under 128 MB from your computer using Python. 
* [Upload a Video with the api.video API Using a Public URL](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/upload-a-video-with-the-api-video-api-using-a-public-url-python/) - Transfer a video from a public URL to api.video

You can also use a no-code method:

1. Open the api.video dashboard.
2. Click **My videos**.
3. Click **Upload**. 
4. Add your video. 

## Use the Captions Endpoint to Add Captions to Your Video
We can now take the files Maestra generated for us and add them to our video. Here's the code sample we're going to use to do it: 

The code sample hard codes the videoId - but if you want you can retrieve it programmatically. A design where a VTT file's title somehow matches the video's title and then you grab the videoId might be a good way to go. 

In our demo, everything is set up to try to handle a situation where you have multiple caption files. We assume a naming convention like this: 
```title_language tag.vtt``` 

So samples of this would be: doug_en-GB for English from Great Britain and doug_es-ES for Spanish from Spain. 

The language tag in each case is a BCP 47 tag. The appropriate tag is at the end of each file so that it can be sliced from the file name and used in the caption upload. Using Python's regex and os modules we search for every file in the current directory that ends with '.vtt'. If it ends with this, we then retrieve the language tag from the end of the title, open the file in binary, then append the tag and file to a POST request to add a caption. We also modify the URL - it needs to include the videoId and the language tag for the language we want to add. You can see how that's built in the sample.

We have two caption files, so we loop through our .vtt files and send each one to be added. For each successful addition of a caption file, we get a response that looks similar to this: 

```
{
	'uri': '/videos/vi6FZib80ZrC8q73AekJqNDH/captions/es', 
	'src': 'https://cdn.api.video/vod/vi6FZib80ZrC8q73AekJqNDH/captions/es.vtt', 
	'srclang': 'es', 
	'default': False
}
```

* uri - the unique link that you add to ``` https://ws.api.video ``` to reach the video caption file (you must authenticate to view this, so you can't paste it into a browser to see it) 
* src - the location URL of the file
* srclang - what language you're using, written shorthand (instead of es-ES it would be es) 
* default - whether this is the default language for the video 

If you want to make a particular language the default caption, you can specify the language by updating a caption. 

## Check Your Work
You can retrieve details about your captions, but an easy way to check is to look in your dashboard: 

1. Go into your Videos section and click your video.


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