Exclusive Interview with Ranga Jagannath, Senior Director- Growth, Agora

The mobile app development industry is evolving at a break-neck speed. To survive and thrive in this digital Darwinian era, you must get acquainted with the changing mobile app development trends. Agora is a Santa Clara-based leading video, voice, and live interactive streaming platform helping developers deliver rich in-app experiences- including embedded voice and video chat, real-time recording, interactive live streaming, and real-time messaging. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Ranga Jagannath, Senior Director- Growth, Agora.

1. Kindly brief us about Agora, its specialization, and the services offered.

Founded in 2014 by CEO Tony Zhao and Co-Founder Tony Wang, Agora is a Santa Clara-based leading video, voice, and live interactive streaming platform helping developers deliver rich in-app experiences- including embedded voice and video chat, real time recording, interactive live streaming, and real-time messaging. Mobile, web, and desktop app developers can embed real-time video and voice functionalities into their applications using simple-to-use, flexible, highly customizable, scalable, and robust application programming interfaces (APIs) from Agora. With Agora, developers and Product Managers need not worry about building and deploying the technology or the underlying infrastructure for real-time engagement.

Agora is the first RTE PaaS (Platform-As-A-Service) that enables the full spectrum of human interactivity, which can be fully contextualized and embedded into any application, on any device, anywhere. Agora makes it easy for brands and developers to offer highly customizable, scalable easy-to-integrate & low latency real-time voice and video capabilities to its end users. Agora takes pride in being developer-friendly and customer-centric. We take a no-code/ low-code approach by empowering developers and creators to build customized apps with absolutely no coding experience to break out of the one-size-fits-all video conferencing solutions.

2. Kindly mention some of the major challenges Agora has faced till now.

When we first began, RTE was a relatively new concept. We had to explain what it meant and how it could transform lives. Fortunately, Agora has not faced too many challenges with getting our target audience to understand RTE or the business of RTE. Since the Agora platform and solutions are very flexible and adaptable for any use case requiring real-time capabilities, talking about the solutions and their impact was enough to help brands understand how best to leverage RTE.

One of the other challenges was for developers to understand how to code for a custom app. Agora App Builder solves this by allowing developers and creators with absolutely no coding experience to embed RTE in their applications.

3. What is the biggest USP that differentiates Agora from its competitors?

The fundamental difference between Agora and other standalone apps is Real-Time Communication (RTC) and RTE. While RTC offers video chatting features, RTE, pioneered by Agora, enables developers to build interactive video-chat-centered apps that can scale to millions of concurrent users on any device, anywhere in the world. RTE delivers the full spectrum of human interactivity, ranging from 1-to-1 to a few-to-million people, whereas RTC is usually about 1-to-1 or 1-to-few people.

Secondly, in terms of scalability, Agora being the first RTE PaaS that enables a full spectrum of human interactivity is more accessible than any other traditional PaaS.  RTE delivers closer to absolute real-time than a conventional Content Delivery Network (CDN).

Lastly, in terms of interactions, Agora's RTE is contextual. People engage longer when they see, hear, and interact with each other. And contextual engagement is what Agora enables and delivers.

4. AI is projected to be the next market. How is AI & ML contributing to Agora's products and services?

AI is indeed powering many of the top and emerging platforms and applications. Agora leverages the computing power of AI and ML algorithms on devices to render more clarity and sharpness during interactive streams. We also use AI to achieve lower bandwidth allocation during streams, ensuring that users in disturbed network environments or emerging markets also experience the best live voice and video possible. Enterprises across various industries can use AI-powered engagement features to create more interactive live streaming experiences, whether they are communicating with their customers or with their internal teams.

Also, Software-Defined Real-Time Network™ (SD-RTN™), Agora's proprietary network, uses ML to dynamically manage the routing of voice and video to overcome severe packet loss incidents and provide uninterrupted streaming. Agora, powered by AI, helps in features and services like auto-adjusting bit rates and frame rates, excellent jitter management, network estimation model, noise separation in real-time, highly efficient video encoding, super-resolution, powerful anti-packet loss mechanism, ultra-low latency, and others.

5. Where do you see growth coming in for the sector?

Due to the pandemic, there has been a shift in consumer behavior with digital adoption redefining how brands communicate. Amidst this, applications that leverage live interactions have seen exponential growth as they keep users socially connected while meeting business needs.

For example:

• In the healthcare sector, doctors and patients connect virtually in real-time with voice, video chat, and live streaming. Features like crystal clear audio, smooth, real-time video, and integrated functionalities allow patients to consult virtually and share their medical records.
• Similarly, in the ed-tech sector, virtual education is making tremendous progress in replacing in-person classes with the help of RTE. With students and teachers spread across the country, interactive voice and video-led software helped retain the essence of a classroom by emulating the student-teacher connect online.
• Another sector that witnessed a rise in voice and video chat is gaming, especially e-sports. Intuitive and advanced Real-time engagement technology turns a remote multiplayer game into a social platform, allowing for enhanced user experiences. Along with "live" engagement and voice or video chat, players can see each other's reactions, cheer each other, and socialize while playing games and creating memories together.

India is also witnessing an upsurge in the adoption of watch parties and the integration of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in daily lives. Enterprises see value in dynamic virtual environments and develop better, newer, and more innovative ways to engage with their audience. Examples include virtual workspaces, remote assistance, metaverses, avatars, and immersive activities.

6. How do you see Agora in the future ahead?

Agora will continue to focus on key verticals where RTE significantly impacts online education, virtual events, eCommerce, and social media. From the workplace to healthcare to gaming, all the sectors are witnessing unprecedented digital growth. The focus is to create a virtual world as we move towards a post-pandemic future. Online learning is a significant opportunity where organizations can improve the experience by providing better quality educational environments. We believe that a hybrid in-person and digital schooling model will be adopted beyond the pandemic.

We are in the business of fostering engagement across all the environments people live, work, and play in. In a post-pandemic world, India is witnessing an upward trend in adopting AR and VR tech. We look forward to partnering with businesses to integrate real-time engagement solutions.

7. What are your predictions for the upcoming year?

The need of the hour for businesses is to keep customers at the forefront and build seamless online experiences to bridge the gap between the real and virtual worlds. At the backbone of this revolution are RTE platforms enabling this virtual shift. Here are some trends that I expect in the coming year:

• We anticipate businesses adopting and adapting to the changing landscape by bringing technologies like AR, VR, and AI-based learning mechanisms into their systems. We will see an upward trend in implementing AR and VR technology as businesses develop innovative solutions to engage customers.
• Another development would be the shift to hybrid offices. We have seen an increased demand for new-age office communication and collaboration tools that support team building in the virtual world. To fill this need — internal video/audio collaboration with the help of RTE for meaningful networking will become the new normal.
• During the pandemic, voice and video capabilities provided a connection despite physical distance and enabled the rise of community gaming. With the spurt in gaming, other aspects such as co-watching, live streaming, and immersive sports are also rising.
• We also expect the rollout of 5G to be an essential enabler. The impact of real-time engagement will be transformative.
• Smarter AI will transform businesses in the future. AI will automate processes like interacting with employees on the company portal, streamlining data, presenting only helpful information to the users, and more. We are already witnessing how companies are actively interacting with AI, allowing it to make and act on decisions on their behalf, considering its responses, and changing their intentions.