TRILLER
A social video community
What is Triller
Triller is an IOS and Android APP that allows you to create quality videos by taking a snippet of your favorite song, adding a video filter and singing along.
Triller also enables creators to have a professional experience, be able to engage with better results and even earn money doing so.
Right now 25 million people, including stars like Kevin Hart, Vanessa Hudgens and the Victoria's Secret models, are using Triller.
Offices
Los Angeles | Paris | San Francisco | New York
PRESS-MENTIONS
CHALLENGE AND SOLUTION
Therefore, we had to stabilize the infrastructure to withstand the additional load related to the social activity on the APP.
The previous code, a legacy Python version, consisted of a number of redundancies and optimizing it was possibly the biggest barrier to overcome.Another complex challenge was to implement new features into an intricate architecture during a very short timeframe. Most of the codebase was located on a monolithic API using legacy Python, deprecated libraries, no CI and no working automated tests. Plus, it was poorly optimized for large scale endeavours and depending on manual deployments. While in collaboration with the main Team in the US and France, we had the opportunity to build an International Team dedicated to the project going from one to eight people, during a six-month period.
Involvement and Strategic Positioning
On this project Dengun became a key strategic partner taking the reins on handling the APP development on the European side.
While we are mainly responsible for Triller’s Backend development, Dengun also provides all specifications to the EU development team, coordinating both the QA and the delivery of activities, as well as the project management for the region.
Additionally, we act as a communication bridge between the US and European teams in order to analyze any upcoming requirements and find the best solutions possible.
The Triller project has provided Dengun with the opportunity to work directly on a project from Silicon Valley, interact with ground-breaking technologies such as Blockchain, manage a different scale infrastructure and provide international collaboration between all team members.
Looking ahead, through continuous improvement, team expansion, engineering development, and larger capacity support, Triller now has the potential to become a Unicorn Startup.
With Dengun’s continuous involvement in this project, we hope to make this goal a reality.
PROCESS
After establishing a baseline, we could start the refactor process and feature implementation with greater confidence. Using JMeter, we were also able to understand the significant bottlenecks and have a ranking to monitor progress over time. We identified what parts of the product could be asynchronous without compromising behaviour and then started plucking those self-contained domain codes into microservices that ran on Kubernetes.
Another major win for performance were parts of the code where we had O(N^2)/O(N)/O(log(N) that we were able to bring to O(1) using efficient cache strategies and/or to implement better-suited algorithms.
Final result
We managed a complete refactor to the server infrastructure and an increase of server performance by 100x while lowering costs and latency. As an example, the average latency went from ~250ms to ~40ms.
We also implemented a full automated CI/CD pipeline and increased project coverage from 20% to 70% during the initial phase of refactoring. Dengun implemented a full-featured CMS platform to manage app content and users while also significantly improving customer support efficiency and responsiveness.
During the process, we worked closely with the product team to discover the best approach for new features and streamline its development. A good part of the product running on loosely coupled event-driven microservices.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
In regards to Project Management we focused on establishing and reinforcing the connection between the US team and the International Dengun team.
Following this, we implemented SCRUM processes for managing and organizing workflow, as well as improving the International recruitment processes, and securing the onboarding and integration of new team members into Dengun’s environment.
Development
backend
We extended the existing API for the mobile APP, including all of its optimization, and together with the US Team, we built an entirely new API layer and Blockchain component.
Additionally we provided support on tasks related to importing song data features off external platforms, handling transaction requests, as well as generating improved notifications for its users.
infrastructure
We analyzed the codebase and infrastructure, creating a diagram of all the connected components. We also set up a CI/CD pipeline, writing unit tests.
We installed an open-source error tracking tool in order to monitor all platform crashes and errors according to their level of urgency.
Secondly, after optimizing the code, we migrated the infrastructure and upgraded it to a newer Python version, resulting in improved stability on a whole.
sysAdmin
On a daily basis we monitor the infrastructure for any possible event, and in the case of an occurrence, action is taken in real time to correct it.
In addition, we also provide continuous support to the already existing servers, monitor further existing errors, and set-up new machines to run new services for the APP.
INTEGRATIONS
Fully compatible with iOS 10.0 or later, and Android 4.3 and up
IN-APP PURCHASES THROUGH BOTH APPLE STORE AND GOOGLE PLAY
Fully compatible with iOS 10.0 or later, and Android 4.3 and up
DIRECT SHARING INTEGRATION WITH THE TOP SOCIAL PLATFORMS SUCH AS FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, TWITTER AND WHATSAPP
Direct integration with iTunes
Fully compatible with all Operating Systems for any type of content download
Fully integrated with Firebase, QuickBlockx and Twilio
Technologies Used
Python for the Core
Proving a quick solution to what was needed, we decided to use Django for the CMS in order to communicate directly with the API.
This was also built to the client’s requirements, it is fully customizable, responsive and in continuous development.
Flask for the API
Our main focus here was to continuously develop and refactor the code already built by the previous developers.
We established the main communication bridge between the API and the CMS, along with the construction of all the hand-points that the CMS uses.
Blockchain for the Monetization System
Our Blockchain framework of choice was Hyperledger Fabric. This framework is developed by The Linux Foundation and IBM.
For the development of chain-codes / smart-contracts we used Golang. Developed by Google.
Lastly, for the communication between the Triller system, the API and the Blockchain, we used the open-source Celery as the middleware worker.
Database
Our main database is on PostgreSQL. We use this to store any necessary data that the Application requires to run.
To store the already computed data in cache, we chose Redis. An open-source in-memory data structure store.
Finally, ElasticSearch was chosen for the user search, as this provided us with the full text search we required.
Tech Results
With now over 28M downloads worldwide, Triller revolutionized the music-video creation process.
Triller became the number #12 ranked APP in the U.S. App Store and number #4 in the French App Store, both under the video category.
Since Dengun became part of the project, between February and June this year, there has been a 5 million download increase. Triller went up to 28 million downloads.
NÓS CUMPRIMOS
Apenas alguns conseguem garantir um balanço perfeito quando se fala em outsourcing e nós orgulhamo-nos de ser um desses. Como?
- 90% de entrega dentro do orçamento
- Foco nos resultados
- Grande relação qualidade/preço
- Inseridos na cultura ocidental
- Excelente destino para visitar e colaborar
- Fluentes em Inglês
- Excelente fuso horário para colaboração (CET)