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The Stunning Power of Communications APIs for the Entertainment Industry

This article was published on August 2, 2021

Discover how video APIs can enhance the customer experience and how customer verification APIs can enable user acquisition at scale for companies of all sizes in the entertainment industry.

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Communications APIs (application programming interfaces) enable companies across the entertainment industry, from online dating to gaming and more, to transform the customer experience and achieve new commercial outcomes at scale. Entertainment app makers and service providers can upgrade their entire customer communications model with new features like live interactive video sessions, and they can make on-boarding processes faster and more secure against fraud.

In particular, video and customer verification APIs can provide entertainment industry organisations of all sizes with a range of capabilities to improve the customer experience and make daily operations smoother, less labour- and time-intensive, and more data-driven.

Enrich the Customer Experience With a Video API

Video APIs can bring users of entertainment apps and services together wherever they are in the world via optimised video connections. The best-of-breed video APIs tend to be straightforward to embed and are fully GDPR-compliant. Ultimately, they can provide entertainment companies in online dating and gaming with consolidated features to make the user journey more enjoyable and secure at all touch points.

These features include fast video integration that can provide connection between two or more parties from anywhere in the world virtually, access via a link with no need for downloads or plugins, and business analytics that equip companies to gain valuable customer insights that can shape future strategic decisions. For instance, the rise of online gaming has made it one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, with predictions of a surge to £153 billion by 2022. The appeal to gamers of connecting to other gamers from around the world — often strangers — has been abundantly clear for years now. With a video API, gaming companies can enable players to connect with one another with the click of a button. And by constantly gathering rich user data, gaming companies can see the impact that the video API has on customer satisfaction.

When online dating and gaming companies harness these capabilities, they position themselves to offer a superior customer experience. The right video API can enable singletons on dating sites to meet in the comfort of their own homes. And for gamers, it takes collaborative and multiplayer gaming to a whole new virtual level.

Acquire Users Securely at Scale

For many sectors in the entertainment industry, such as online dating and gaming, validation of all users is a crucial factor in building trust and reliability in the user base. After all, a robust two-factor validation step indicates a serious approach to stamping out fraud. The result is a reputation for trustworthiness, and companies can increase conversion across channels by connecting only to legitimate users. All the while, they also avoid wasting communication dollars on bogus accounts.

Entertainment companies can also save money by choosing to integrate a customer verification API that offers a pay-per-conversion model: There's only a cost once a user is successfully onboarded. This makes scaling more sustainable as there's no upfront cost in exchange for API access and companies only pay in line with completed client conversions.

Making users feel safe and that they can trust an application or service with their sensitive information is a critical first challenge to meet for all businesses. Therefore, a client verification API should provide the requisite security measures to address this understandable concern. For instance, a robust API should offer enhanced security features such as single-use authorisation codes without the need for passwords, compatibility with all kinds of phone operators globally, and fraud-prevention components like unauthorised transaction prevention as well as spam and botnet elimination.

Transitioning to Communications APIs to Enhance Commercial Performance

Of course, entertainment companies are acutely aware of the need to provide fully secure digital products to customers. A video API that includes "always-on" encryption equips them to achieve this.

One common sticking point for companies is the process of change itself. After all, switching to new technology has long been associated with lengthy installation periods and high costs. And then there's the employee training that comes after. But these are very much issues of the past.

The leading modern communications APIs are designed specifically for fast and easy integration, and because they're cloud-based, there's no on-site installation or ongoing maintenance involved. Moreover, from the back to the front end, they're built for intuitive use. And as for cost, they can actually help companies trim operational expenses.

The benefits of integrating robust communications APIs into entertainment apps and services are multiple: from elevating the user experience to improved retention rates and from faster, more precise anti-fraud measures to multiple touchpoint opportunities to strengthen the customer relationship. It's an outstanding time for entertainment companies to transform their communication experiences, and with it, their overall business performance.

Vonage Staff

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