How to Develop a Mobile App like Disney+ Hotstar?

What is Hotstar App?

Hotstar is India’s biggest premium video-on-demand streaming platform owned by Star India, which is a subsidiary of Walt Disney. It has 100,000+ hours of video content (web series, movies, and more) in 17 different languages. Moreover, Hotstar also shows the live coverage of every major global sports match.

About Hostar App:

• Founder: Sunil Rayan
• CEO: Sunil Rayan
• Founding Year: Feb 2015
• Headquarter:Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
• Owner: The Walt Disney Company India
• Valuation: Over INR 1500 Crore
• Last Funding: INR 1136 Crore

As Disney purchased the parent company of Star India – 21st Century in 2019, Hotstar became the video-on-demand service of Disney and it renamed to Disney+ Hotstar. Hotstar targeted the sole of Indian audience – Cricket and along with that, Hotstar offered the content in 7 Indian Languages, and therefore by offering such an amazing, curated, and personalized content for the Indian audience, Hotstar became the best streaming service of India and the most used streaming service by Indians.

The service targets the Indian audience in a very apt and distinct way. The feature that targets many viewers is that Hotstar doesn’t only offer paid packs, but there is a free subscription too in which it offers some movies, serials, and series. There is a VIP pack that offers domestic programs and sports content. The premium pack includes international films and series. It contains all the movies and series of Disney, HBO, Showtime, and many more.

As of March 2020, Hotstar has at least 300 million active users.

Key Facts about Hotstar App

• Hotstar has 8 million+ subscribers.
• There are 400 million+ downloads of the Hotstar app.
• The free version runs on Advertisement monetary strategy and therefore the free version is also a good source of income for Hotstar.
• During the India- New Zealand ICC World Cup, 19 million concurrent viewers streamed the match on Hotstar.
• Disney+ Hotstar has about 100,000+ hours of content.
• About 90% of Disney+ Hotstar viewing occurs on the mobile device.
• A total of 267 million viewers streamed the 2019 Indian Premier League Tournament on Disney+ Hotstar.
• A total of 45.88% of the total Indian Smartphones have Disney+ Hotstar installed in them.

What is Disney+ (Disney Plus)?

Disney+ (also called Disney Plus) is am American subscription on-demand video streaming platform owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. It has a very large video content library with 6000+ TV episodes and 500+ movies. Disney+ content comes from Disney+ originals, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, and National Geographic.

Moreover, Disney+ premium bundle pack also comes with premium streaming service Hulu and top live sports streaming service ESPN+. Overall, Disney+ provides all kinds of entertainment services from kids to adults.

Streaming Apps Like Hotstar and Disney+

Cable Television can only be seen at home and that too only in the room that has a TV. Along with being portable, the on-demand video streaming services offer a much wider and entertaining content. One can watch the series or movie whenever they like. The convenience of the series and movies had been increased to a great extent.

The global video streaming market size was valued at USD 42.60 billion in 2019 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.4% from 2020 to 2027.

Moreover, all the apps that enter the market are producing their own originals, like Disney+, Hotstar, Netflix & More have their own shows that are available nowhere other than on Disney+, Hotstar, Netflix, & more. Therefore every on-demand video streaming service has its own place in the market.

This makes this market much more favorable to invest in. If you are looking for on-demand video streaming app like Disney+ Hotstar app development, this article will help you in knowing – How to develop an app like Disney+ Hotstar.

Top 15 Disney+ Hotstar App Features

An app is defined by the features that it offers. Seeing the number of downloads of Hotstar and the engagement that it receives from the audience, it is safe to say that the features are really good and are working fabulously.

Here is a list of features that Disney+ Hotstar offers;

1. Video Library

Being an on-demand video streaming app, it is but natural that there should be a rich video library full of entertaining content for all ages. There should be kids cartoons, anime shows, and movies. For Teenagers, there should be various series and movies, for an adult male, there should be different sports and political content, for adult females, there should be serials and drama movies.

2. Multiple Language Support

Hotstar supports more than 9 Languages. If you want people to spend time on your app, you have to add content that supports more than 1 language. The videos should be available in Hindi, English, and in as many regional languages as possible. This way you can target a larger audience.

3. Search and explore options

You have to make categories of different genres of videos. There should be a different option for live videos, different options for movies, series, kids, etc. Furthermore, you should also divide these options according to their genre and moods. This will make it easy for the viewers to find something interesting according to their taste.

4. Multiple Screen Mirroring

Multiple Screen Mirroring allows the user to watch the videos on Television, Laptop, iPod, and various other devices. This is a very useful feature as using this, the users can use your services on whichever device they want. This will target a large number of viewers for your app.

5. Reporting Feature

When a user downloads a video, watches something, likes something, it is all stored in your database and this is known as the reporting feature. This way, with the help of in-built analytics, you will know what is the taste of the user and therefore you would be able to personalize their app experience of the users.

6. Payment Options

This is a must-have feature if you are going to receive payments for the subscription. A person may like your app and they may want to buy your subscription, but unless and until you provide them with a payment option that they can go for, they will not buy your subscription. Therefore, you should incorporate all the basic and famous payment gateways.

7. User Profile

This is the option that the user can use to create and manage their profile details like their name, age, gender, payment options, avatar, watchlist, and many other things. If the subscription of your app is for more than one user, you should provide as many profiles as the number of users your app permits.

8. Push Notification

Let the user know if you have added some new video or if some series or movies are a hit and many people are watching it. This will increase the click rate of that video and will help you in increasing your revenue. You can also use this for reminders of upcoming series or to remind the user that they have left a video in the middle. There are endless possibilities in this feature.

9. Watchlist

The user should be allowed to create their own playlist of selected videos, and this is known as the Watchlist. This allows the user to group all the videos that they want to watch or are interested in. A user may not want to start something else if they are watching something, and therefore, they can add all the videos that they like in the Watchlist to watch them later.

10. Social Sign-in

Remembering different IDs and Passwords is hard and your motive is to create an app that is user-friendly. Adding the social sign-in feature will allow the user to sign-in in just a few seconds and the ID and Password will be also the same. This will facilitate the sign-in process and thus will improve the user experience.

11. Privacy Settings

Some users may not want to share their watchlist and recently watched videos to their friends and family and to tackle this situation, you should add privacy settings for the account holders. All the users should be allowed to add a password to their profile so that no one else can access it.

12. Buffering Free Broadcast

Buffering is the worst kind of suffering when you are desperately wanting to see your favorite show or video. It may happen if the internet connectivity of the user is not stable, but you can handle this situation if your app simply degrades the quality of the video. This will not let the video buffer and therefore the user will be able to watch the videos even when their internet or wifi is slow.

13. Download and watch offline

There is no need to restrict your app’s working to online mode only. For a better experience, this feature allows the users to download the videos that they wish to watch, and therefore, they can watch the downloaded videos whenever they want, and that too without any connection.

14. HD Videos Access

When you watch videos on Disney+ Hotstar, it allows you to stream the content in a crystal clear quality. This is what attracts the users and keeps them engaged. The quality of the videos matters a lot, and therefore all of the videos should be available in the HD quality. The least can be 720p, nothing below this will work.

15. Original Content

This is the feature that sets Disney+ Hotstar different from all the other on-demand video streaming services. The original content of Hotstar is known as Hotstar Specials and The original content of Disney Plus is known as Disney+ originals. The videos under Hotstar Specials and Disney Originals are available at no other place. Therefore, if someone wants to watch them, the only option they have these kinds of streaming services.

How to develop an on-demand video streaming app like Disney+ Hotstar

Hotstar app development is not an easy task. You need an app development team and the latest technology to develop the perfect on-demand video streaming app like Disney+ Hotstar. It is a work of a lot of technical knowledge and proper teamwork. Here is what you will need to develop an on-demand video streaming app like Disney+ Hotstar.

— Team Require for Disney+ and Hostar app development

• Project Manager
• Android Developer
• iOS Developer
• Back-end Developer
• QA Engineer
• Business Analyst
• UI/UX Designer

— Technologies Require for Disney+ Hotstar app development

• Kotlin for Android Development
• Swift for iOS Development
• Node.js for Back-end Development
• AWS or Azure for Cloud
• SQL or MongoDB or Cassandra for Database
• Azure Stream Analytics for Real-time analytics
• Google Cloud Messaging and Apple push notifications service for Notifications
• WebRTC for Video Streaming API
• Live sports streaming API
• Google Maps API for Geo-location

OR

The simpler option here is to hire a leading app development company to take care of all the technical parts of the development so that you can focus on marketing and other important tasks of your on-demand video streaming app like Disney+ Hotstar. An app development company will be a better option as this can save you from the expenses of hiring the team and purchasing the technology that is listed above, and their expertise can help you in getting the perfect app.

Business & Revenue Model of on-demand video streaming app like Disney+ Hotstar

There are two revenue and business models;

— Subscription Based

The main source of income of most of the on-demand video streaming services is subscription-based. Users can pay the subscription amount based on the pack that they choose. Disney+ and Hotstar offer monthly and yearly subscription for the Premium pack, however, there is only a yearly subscription available for the Hotstar VIP pack.

— Advertisement

As I mentioned earlier, there’s also a free plan on Hotstar. It uses advertisements to generate revenue. When you are streaming something in the free version, you will have to see an advertisement in 5-10 minutes interval.

How much does it cost to develop an app like Hotstar?

Developing an app like Hotstar would cost around $20,000 – $30,000 for a single (Android or iOS) platform with all the basic features. By including advanced features and developing the app for multiple platforms, the price can rise up to $60,000 – $70,000.

factors that affect the cost of Hotstar app development

1. App Platform

The price of developing an app for Android is more compared to iOS. If you go for a single platform, the cost will come down, but, if you wish to develop an app for both the platforms, the price will obviously increase.

2. App Design

The designers have to put a lot of effort while developing the UI/UX of the app to make it attractive and user-friendly. If you want a simple design, the price will be less, but, if you want a unique design and more creative work, the price will be more.

3. Development Team

If you want to develop the app in-house, you have to hire all the above-mentioned team members to ensure a perfect development process. In this case, you have to pay the salary of all the team members and you also have to pay for the hiring process. This can be costly.

If you simply hire an app development company, you can outsource all the development work. This way, you just have to pay the determined fee. This is a pocket-friendly alternative.

4. Features

Each feature requires time to be developed, and therefore each feature has its own cost. If you add more features, the cost will increase and vice-versa. Therefore the number of features that your app has, will have a direct effect on the development cost.

How much time does it take to develop an app like Hotstar?

Developing an app like Disney+ and Hotstar will take time around 20 Weeks. The time can also increase depending on your requirements, the features that you choose, and the platform compatibility for Disney+ Hotstar like app development.

To Sum up of Disney Hotstar App Developent

As most of the people are staying at home due to the global pandemic that is caused by Covid-19, many are dependent on on-demand video streaming apps for their daily entertainment. This is the perfect time to develop an on-demand video streaming app like Disney+ Hotstar, as people are desperately waiting for amazing content, and if your app is able to provide them with the same, your app will be a huge hit overnight. Just ensure that your app has all the right features, functionalities, elements, and content. Just ensure that you choose the right mobile app development company to have the best on-demand video streaming app in your pocket.

Why is Capermint Best for Disney Hotstar App Development?

Capermint Technologies is one of the best leading mobile app development company with an outstanding team that is a hub of different talents. We are known to develop apps that can transform your business/service and are capable of targeting all your needs. Our experts can develop the best high-end video streaming app. Our proficiency and on-hand experience give us the upper hand to stand out from the competition. Also, our professional firm, and talented team are ready to aid all your app development needs.