How WebRTC Development Can Be Useful for Your Business
The emergence of peer-to-peer networks and ecommerce marketplaces have given rise to a whole new way of interacting with the vastness of the Internet. Traditional Internet activities were limited to client-server interactions, where end users access content stored on different servers, and different end users can communicate with each other through the assistance of some servers that mediate the process. With peer-to-peer networks, however, end users are able to communicate and exchange data with each other directly, without needing the facilitation of an intermediate server.
One of the most popular technologies that bring the power of peer-to-peer networks is WebRTC. In this article, we take a close look at this technology and see how using it can be greatly beneficial to many businesses.
WebRTC Overview: The Value of a WebRTC Developer
Initially released by Google in May 2011, WebRTC is an open-source collection of protocols and APIs to enable real-time communication via peer-to-peer connections, typically through browsers. It has since been standardized jointly by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Currently, it is being supported by Google, Mozilla, and Opera.
WebRTC enables a wide range of activities over peer-to-peer networks, including video and audio calling and conferencing, instant messaging, file sharing, and video or audio live streaming, including desktop sharing. These activities may be done between the browsers of two or more end users, also referred to as peers in the context of peer-to-peer networks, without having to pass through any central server to facilitate the communication. The technology is composed of three major components, which are:
- Media Capture and Stream – This component, which may be called through the method getUserMedia, allows developers to access the recording and streaming devices of a peer, such as their device’s cameras and microphones.
- Peer Connection – This component, which may be accessed by creating an RTCPeerConnection object, allows developers to establish a WebRTC connection between two or more peers. All WebRTC interactions between multiple peers begin by establishing this connection between the participating peers.
- Data Channel – This component, which may be accessed by creating an RTCDataChannel object, allows developers to initiate data transfer between two peers. This is necessary for peers to exchange arbitrary data, such as files, with one another.
WebRTC is currently supported by a wide range of browsers across different operating systems. On desktop, it is supported on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Opera, and Vivaldi. On Android devices, it is supported on mobile versions of Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. On iOS, it is supported on the mobile version of Safari.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the benefits and drawbacks of using WebRTC in applications:
With the continued rise in peer-to-peer networks, WebRTC also has a rapidly and continuously growing market. According to Transparency Market Research, as of 2016, WebRTC has a global market of around 10.71 billion USD, with its largest market region being North America, followed by Asia Pacific and Europe. In terms of industries, its largest markets are in telecommunications, information solution, healthcare, e-commerce, and education. By 2025, its global market is projected to rise to around 81.52 billion USD.
WebRTC Sample Projects
Here are some interesting projects that utilize the power of WebRTC technology:
- Veeting Rooms – Short for Virtual Meeting Rooms, this site makes it possible to have online meetings with anyone from anywhere in the globe. It offers video and audio conferencing capabilities, as well as collaboration tools like document sharing, group messaging, and slideshow presentations.
- Travefy – This app is for group travellers who want to collaboratively plan their travels. Here, users can invite their travel buddies to coordinate and collaborate on travel planning, hotel booking, shared expense tracking, and itinerary planning.
- DragShare – This is a very simple application that allows users to share files over peer-to-peer networks. A user simply drags and drops the files he wishes to share onto the site, sends the file links to his friends, and his friends can immediately download the files.
- PrepLesson – This web app brings together language students and teachers by providing a platform for students to learn over a hundred languages. It provides a convenient way for students to find great teachers in different languages, enables video call features for students and teachers to interact, and provides scheduling tools to match available time slots of students and teachers.
- 24session – This is a video calling application that’s targeted as a platform for businesses and customers to interact. It enables customers to find experts in different fields, schedule a meeting with them, and talk to them to seek professional advice. With 24session, you can avail of professional services from anywhere in the world.
How Diverse the Knowledge of a WebRTC Developer
With the complexity of peer-to-peer architectures, the concept of WebRTC may be difficult to grasp for many developers, and it may be quite challenging to find great WebRTC developers who can correctly use the tool following industry standard best practices.
Developers can use WebRTC with various languages. Front-end developers can use the standard WebRTC HTML5 and JavaScript APIs for pure browser-to-browser interactions. Full-stack developers can also include WebRTC functionalities in backend codes with WebRTC Java and Ruby WebRTC APIs, or C# WebRTC APIs for a C# WebRTC developer. Mobile developers can also use Native WebRTC APIs, such as WebRTC for Android or for iOS which supports WebRTC Swift or Objective C. Mobile devs can also use WebRTC-based frameworks like OpenWebRTC, which enables WebRTC functionalities in native mobile applications.
WebRTC Developer Salary
If you’re in need of a great WebRTC expert or OpenWebRTC developer, one of your primary concerns would likely be the cost of hiring devs. Let’s take a look at the typical rates of WebRTC developers in different countries to help us determine where it’s best to hire from. In this comparison, we use data from PayScale. Since no data specific to WebRTC developers are available, we use data for general software developers. Therefore, the figures may not be accurate, but we should expect the relative salaries among the different countries to be more or less the same. With this, the average annual salaries of software developers in different countries are as follows:
- US – $69,083
- UK – £30,651 ($41,445)
- Ukraine – $27,498
- Canada – C$62,375 ($50,106)
- Netherlands – €41,973 ($50,136)
Average Gross Annual Salaries of Software Developers in Different Countries (Source: PayScale)
Evidently, Ukraine offers the best rates for software developers among the countries we compared. From these data, we can infer that it’s best to hire a WebRTC developer from Ukraine to get the best bang for your buck.
Adopt WebRTC Development In Your Business Now
WebRTC is a technology that makes full use of current peer-to-peer technologies that enable new types of interactions among internet users. With real-time communication at its heart, it gives you and your customers the power to interact, communicate, and collaborate in real time without the need for a third party server as mediator. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for customer engagement, and even exposes new markets and business ideas that you can explore. When considering the usefulness of WebRTC development for your business, leveraging EOR services and web app developer for hire can facilitate seamless integration of real-time communication capabilities, enabling efficient collaboration and enhanced user experiences.
If you’re in need of excellent WebRTC development services, you’re in sheer luck! We at Mobilunity have just what you need. As a Ukraine-based dedicated teams provider, we have excellent dedicated developers who are experts in WebRTC and a wide range of other technologies. What’s more, we offer incredibly affordable rates that are difficult to match. With us, you get more than what you pay for.
Connect with us now and let’s get you the WebRTC developer that your business needs to shine!
All salaries and prices mentioned within the article are approximate NET numbers based on the research done by our in-house Recruitment Team. Please use these numbers as a guide for comparison purposes only and feel free to use the contact form to inquire on the specific cost of the talent according to your vacancy requirements and chosen model of engagement.
