In today’s digital landscape, video streaming is on the rise and is expected to surpass traditional media in the near future. As a result, revenues from streaming video subscriptions and video advertising have significantly increased, climbing from just over $2 billion in 2010 to a projected total of over $100 billion by 2026.

Maintaining a high-quality user experience is paramount, and robust testing plays a vital role in achieving this. This case study examines how SHIFT ASIA partnered with a leading video streaming platform to address its growing testing challenges. The partnership ensured seamless performance and a flawless user experience across a complex ecosystem of devices and browsers. The platform, experiencing rapid growth and feature expansion, needed a reliable QA partner to handle the increasing demands of its testing process.

About the Client

The client is a globally recognized video streaming platform providing solutions for hosting, streaming, and monetizing video content. They serve diverse customers, including broadcasters, publishers, and enterprises, enabling them to deliver high-quality video experiences to their audiences. With a global presence, including offices in the UK and Japan, the company is committed to innovation and continuously expanding its platform capabilities to meet the market’s evolving needs. The platform supports both AVOD (advertising-based video on demand) and live streaming with monetization capabilities, making it a key player in the digital media industry.

The Challenge: Keeping Up with Platform Growth

As the video streaming platform expanded to include live streaming and monetization features alongside their basic AVOD content, the complexity of their platform skyrocketed. This expansion, while positive, put immense pressure on their internal APAC team, who struggled to conduct comprehensive testing with their limited resources.

They needed a solution to ensure seamless performance across the diverse landscape of browsers and devices, especially considering the variations across different countries. Their challenge stemmed from the need to thoroughly test before each go-live date and after any implementation changes to guarantee a flawless user experience. While their internal team was skilled, it lacked the specialized expertise in Quality Assurance necessary for this level of testing.

The company required a structured approach to:

• Conduct functional and performance testing for both server-side and client-side video delivery.
• Ensure smooth playback across various devices and browsers.
• Perform verification before the acceptance phase and after each implementation update.
• Maintain high-quality standards despite ambiguous requirements or documentation.

The Solution: SHIFT ASIA’s Comprehensive Testing Approach

SHIFT ASIA stepped in to provide a comprehensive solution. The project scope encompassed both functional and performance testing to verify cross-browser, device, and compatibility. This included testing video content served from both the server and the client sides. The goal was to ensure consistent and reliable playback regardless of how the content was delivered.

SHIFT ASIA’s approach was to provide manual QA testing with a focus on timely delivery to meet the deadlines for each end-client project. This involved creating customized test scopes tailored to the specific needs of each implementation. The SHIFT ASIA team communicated directly with the company’s QA team (consisting of four members), Client PM, Customer Success, and Technical Account Manager, ensuring seamless collaboration throughout the process. The project utilized a variety of test devices, including a device farm, covering desktop, web, and mobile platforms.

The Results: Measurable Improvements and Increased Confidence

The partnership resulted in significant improvements. SHIFT ASIA empowered the company’s delivery team to submit their implementations for each client confidently. This was achieved through rapid test design, even in the face of ambiguous requirements or documentation, along with a high degree of flexibility. The outcomes were both measurable and impactful. Test durations were reduced from six weeks to just three weeks, and, importantly, production bugs decreased to less than 1.5%, which met the company’s strict service standards. This improvement enhanced the user experience and contributed to lower churn rates. As a result, the team could confidently roll out video implementations for major TV stations and media companies.

Service Highlights and Why SHIFT ASIA?

This success highlights SHIFT ASIA’s responsiveness, effective test design techniques, comprehensive reporting, language skills (Japanese/English), and consultancy on tools and tech stacks. Each verification cycle took approximately two weeks, and SHIFT ASIA provided ongoing support. The project’s key facts include the involvement of dedicated testers, a significant number of man-hours, and the use of various testing tools and technologies.

SHIFT ASIA was chosen for this critical project due to its market reputation as a QA expert. Its proven ability to deliver high-quality testing solutions made it the ideal partner. By focusing on both functional testing, ensuring all features worked as expected, and performance testing, guaranteeing smooth playback and responsiveness, SHIFT ASIA helped the company solidify its position as a leading video streaming platform.

Key Takeaways

This case study demonstrates the value of specialized QA expertise in ensuring the success of complex video streaming platforms. By partnering with SHIFT ASIA, the client overcame their testing challenges, significantly improved their QA process, and delivered a consistently high-quality user experience.

Reduced production bugs and the accelerated testing cycle directly contributed to increased confidence in their platform and, ultimately, a better product for their customers. This highlights the importance of investing in robust testing strategies to maintain a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving video streaming market.