[Journey] Building a video hosting platform (Mainstream & adult)

[Pwik]

Hello BHW,

I'm back after some time.
For those who knows me, I was already into the streaming industry previously, operating streaming websites.
They have made a good load of money between 2022-2024.

Because of DMCA takedowns, DNS blockings, and difficulties to market such websites (more than Google doesn't like DMCA content on websites), I decided to switch into another dimension.

I decided to launch my own video hosting platform, inspired by Doodstream and Uqload, using a PPV revenue model for uploaders.
This kind of service is difficult to launch, because you have to get skills in development, devops, dedicated server management and video encoding.
You also have to make sure that ads are smoothly integrated into the served embeds.

Since the platform has been launched by a streaming webmaster, and dedicated to streaming webmasters, I considered important to integrate MKV subtitles handling, API handling, remote upload & torrent mirroring, as well as daily payout starting from $10 earnings. As well as a feature that was appreciated on Dood: the search/copy/clone capacity, allowing users to search for public videos hosted on the platform, and clone them on their account, to serve them afterwards using their own embed links.

Regarding the tech aspects, it is important, for those who would like to launch a similar service, to protect your backend IP, and use proxys/CDN in order to reduce server load regarding video traffic + act as a bulletproof jacket bridging your backend to your public domain. In our case, we use domain separation between dashboard and video embeds.

After 1 month of operation, the platform already gathered 134 registered members, 9135 videos uploaded, using 1,78Tb of storage, and launched in public beta on another forum (WJ).

Here are a few screenshots taken by the members:



On the Analytics side, GA4 has collected interesting informations, proving that there is demand in the sector:






Feel free to ask your questions about the journey,
I'll make sure to publish regularly also.

 

[Boriss]

Looks very good.

Good luck with the journey.

What AI tools did you use to create the platform?

With such businesses you need a lot of traffic to earn good income - compared to other businesses/websites.

 

[Pwik]

Looks very good.

Good luck with the journey.

What AI tools did you use to create the platform?

With such businesses you need a lot of traffic to earn good income - compared to other businesses/websites.

Thank you!

So far, 50/50, combined dev skills + Gemini.
And indeed, getting enough traffic and volume will take time, but step by step and with some time, that will increase.

 

[Lordinaryus]

Good luck.

What hosting provider do you use?

 

[Elon Snup]

What would worry me is the CSAM risk. How do you handle this?

 

[MrJane]

what are the revenues so far?

 

[Pwik]

Good luck.

What hosting provider do you use?

Thanks. Started it with Hetzner, but as we're growing, I will diversify the servers pool across several providers (mainly for load balancing purposes).

What would worry me is the CSAM risk. How do you handle this?

Indeed, that's a serious topic.
It's - of course - strictly forbidden in our system. This is why every file is manually inspected to make sure there is no CSAM content inside.

what are the revenues so far?

Well, the platform has only 1 month of existence, so revenue is currently negligible.
But this is fine, major companies started this way. Bigger numbers will come with volume, over time. I'll publish some updates here when the platform will take off.
The overall income is currently negative due to the servers cost. But it was planned before starting, this is why I started with some capital, enough to run the servers for 1-2 years and see.

 

[Elon Snup]

Indeed, that's a serious topic.
It's - of course - strictly forbidden in our system. This is why every file is manually inspected to make sure there is no CSAM content inside.

9135 video upload that you manually watched?

not sure if I can take your word for it...

 

[newbiewebie]

like what are the staring cost ? and how you got users to it ?

 

[Pwik]

9135 video upload that you manually watched?

not sure if I can take your word for it...

I am that dedicated to this platform. I made it from scratch, so I reviewed every part of it, including the uploaded videos. I have a lot of spare time outside my 9/5 job, so I spend most of it monitoring it.
An so far, I got no CSAM content. My Terms page is very clear and strict about that, I won't go easy on anyone on this aspect.
But in the long run, it is indeed unsustainable, I will bring new recruits onboard to monitor uploads.

like what are the staring cost ? and how you got users to it ?

It is free to register and use it: users are just uploading their videos, and they get paid on views that their embed generates.
The first users joined the platform after publishing a thread on WJunction forum. There are a lot of uploaders sitting there.

 

[Mike Angelo32]

External video hosts are mostly scam, never trusting them with my videos on my site

 

[ladykiller101]

An so far, I got no CSAM content. My Terms page is very clear and strict about that, I won't go easy on anyone on this aspect.
But in the long run, it is indeed unsustainable, I will bring new recruits onboard to monitor uploads.

That's the one thing I'd be most concerned about. AFAIK, you will have to implement something like hash checking with known CSAM content before anything gets live. There are databases of these but I don't know more than that.

I don't think it'd be possible to manually review every video that gets uploaded even with VAs once the site gets popular. But that's me.

 

[Pwik]

Following your thoughts, I have now implemented a CSAM-checking content, using known hashes, combined with automatic thumbnail cross-checking (powered by AI). And if anything is suspicious, the tool raises a flag, that I can manually handle.

The platforms grows well these days. Rates are fair, and the number of users is growing faster.

 

[newbiewebie]

15 dmca ? are mostly leaks of Onlyfans models ?
try posting the website on leaks forums , like fileditch got to 17 million visits monthly thanks to leaks forums .
its still all about porn in the end .

 

[MarketSellCap]

With over 9,000 videos uploaded, storage costs could add up fast. You could check how many videos haven't had any views in months and move them to cheaper storage. That might help cut costs without affecting the videos people actually watch.

 

[Pwik]

15 dmca ? are mostly leaks of Onlyfans models ?
try posting the website on leaks forums , like fileditch got to 17 million visits monthly thanks to leaks forums .
its still all about porn in the end .

22 so far in total, mostly copyright content related to movies and TV shows.
Thank you for the hint, it's indeed a good way to drive some volume.
And yes, roughly 80% of the catalog uploaded by members is NSFW/adult content.

With over 9,000 videos uploaded, storage costs could add up fast. You could check how many videos haven't had any views in months and move them to cheaper storage. That might help cut costs without affecting the videos people actually watch.

There are currently 12365 videos hosted, and indeed, that cost some storage. 6.4TB used, and 8 TB remaining on the disks.
I have already implemented a feature that remove inactive videos (0 views) after 60 days.
I planned to get a secondary dedicated server with 20TB storage when the first one will be 80% full. I was first thinking about Cloudflare R2 storage, but the fees for 20TB-50TB is insane, around 1,000-1,500$/month, even if there are no data egress fees.