What is Bandwidth?
Bandwidth is the data that gets passed to a viewer when they watch a video. Every time someone views your video content, data is passed from our server to theirs which is counted as bandwidth. As well as this, some other factors that count towards bandwidth include loading the player and thumbnail, internal viewing, and downloads.
How Does it All Work?
When you sign-up for Yondo, you will begin with a set amount of bandwidth. Because we are a video e-commerce solution, we understand that it is vital to provide our customers with generous amounts of bandwidth. Of course, this limit is dependent on our different plans, but 95% of our customers never exceed their selected bandwidth limit.
For more information on bandwidth and plan options, follow this link: Yondo Pricing
What Factors Increase Bandwidth Usage?
While it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where hikes in bandwidth come from, it’s likely that the videos that are generating the most traffic are to blame. Also, if you have a video file that’s quite large in size or of a higher quality - that might also be using up a lot of bandwidth.
Extra Bandwidth Pricing
Before you exceed your allotted bandwidth, we'll send you a few email alerts letting you know you're approaching your plan allotment, and also the projected bandwidth total. We do not charge a penalty rate for extra bandwidth (like you might find with a cell phone bill). You have the option to upgrade to a plan with a higher bandwidth allotment, or you will be charged a pay as you go fee, which starts at $0.33/GB.
If you're on the $39/mo Starter Plan with the default 200 GB bandwidth limit, and you end up using 250 GB of bandwidth for the month, here's what your bill would look like:
- $39 for the Starter Plan
- 50 GB of additional bandwidth at $0.33/GB = $16.50
- This month's bill: $55.50
How to Cut Down on Bandwidth
Constantly hitting or exceeding your bandwidth limit indicates that you might want to switch to a higher plan in order to showcase all of your videos more effectively to your customers. Alternately, there are a couple of things you can do to reduce the bandwidth usage of your videos.
Video Quality - changing the quality of your videos is the first step most people take to cut down on bandwidth usage. At Yondo we typically recommend your videos be __ or above in order to maintain a good quality image. However, reducing the quality slightly can do wonders for conserving your bandwidth and it can also be undone at any time.
Video Length - when a customer starts watching a video of yours, the video will typically load automatically. If they have a high-speed internet connection, the video will within a couple of minutes. This means that even if they don’t watch the full video, it still will have used up your bandwidth. Creating shorter length videos increases your chances of engagement because they require less of the viewer and in doing so, you free up your bandwidth. Yondo’s playlist feature is perfect for this as it allows you to create a series of videos to be viewed consecutively - producing a similar effect to a longer length video.
PRO TIP: If you’re looking for other ways to cut down on your video bandwidth, try to watch your own videos sparingly because this does count towards your bandwidth.
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