From product to ecosystem
When Filmin was born 18 years ago, the challenge was very contained. We were developing a website. The first smartphone apps arrived soon after, but complexity was still low. That world no longer exists in 2026.
Today a streaming platform does not design a product, it designs an ecosystem. We have to be present on Smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes such as Fire TV, browsers… And every door you open creates technical debt. Launching the app is only the beginning, because every product update has to be replicated on every device you are on. Sometimes the most sensible decision is to let an app die, when actual usage no longer justifies the effort of maintaining it.
Fragmentation makes the challenge harder. There is no single Smart TV. LG, Samsung, Hisense and Xiaomi have different requirements. LG’s remote works with a pointer, Samsung’s with arrow keys, and that difference forces you to rethink the entire navigation. Then there are the intermediaries: Apple, Amazon and Android impose their own requirements for an app to be approved in their stores, something unthinkable on the open web of years ago.
Faced with this complexity, at Filmin all technology is developed in-house. And the underlying reason is not financial but about learning. When you outsource, you lose part of the development and the context. A provider for the Android app and another for the Apple one will never have the complete picture we can have at Filmin. Developing in-house keeps knowledge where it belongs.