A home for competitive entertainment
Talent gets people’s attention. Competition gives them a reason to keep watching. TopThis brings the two together, giving creators a stage to showcase their skills, go head-to-head against each other, and build an audience. From dance-offs to rap battles, each competition gives fans a role in the action: their votes help decide who wins.
To help creators put their best performances forward, TopThis needed powerful, easy-to-use video creation and editing tools across its native iOS and Android apps. Banuba’s Video Editor SDK provided that foundation, allowing the TopThis team to focus on the competition experience from head-to-head battles and bracket tournaments to audience voting.
Product
TopThis combines the discovery of a short-form video feed with the excitement of competition. Fans can explore performances, follow their favorite creators, and engage through likes, comments, and shares.
At the heart of the platform are 1v1 battles, king-of-the-hill leaderboards, and bracket-style tournaments, where audience votes help determine the winners. Creators can challenge each other, compete for leaderboard positions, and enter tournaments with cash prizes. Fans follow the action, rally behind their favorites, and help decide who advances.
Each competition creates a story that unfolds over time, giving creators something to work toward and audiences a reason to come back.
Of course, TopThis also contains a full-fledged video editor with the following features:
- Trimming/merging
- Sound recording/editing
- Video effects
- Color filters
- Pixelation
- Text overlays
- Stickers
- Etc.
All of this functionality came from Banuba Video Editor SDK, an easy-to-integrate module that can connect to an app in development or a live product. Depending on the clients’ needs, it can offer a lot of features in addition to the ones above:
- Picture-in-picture mode (Duets)
- AI captions
- AI clipping
- Templates
- Virtual backgrounds
- Etc.
Why Banuba
There are many video editor SDKs on the market. But the development team at TopThis! chose Banuba for several good reasons:
1. Easy integration without compromising on functionality. Of the providers that the developers evaluated, they didn’t find another solution that matched Banuba’s combination of plug-and-play integration and robust editing capabilities. That meant they could deliver a strong video creation experience while keeping the team focused on what makes TopThis distinctive: battles, bracket tournaments, and audience voting systems.
2. Comprehensive capabilities at a cost that made sense. As a growing company, TopThis! had to be thoughtful about where it invests its development time and budget. Building and maintaining a full video editor from the ground up would have required significant resources across Android and iOS. Banuba gave them the breadth of functionality they were looking for at a price that worked for their business. The value extends beyond the initial integration, too: as Banuba improves its product, TopThis! has a path to expand its creative tools without taking on all of that development themselves.
3. A team that feels invested in the client’s success. The relationship was as valuable as the technology. The Banuba team was hands-on, responsive, and willing to take the time to understand what TopThis! were building and how they can help.
“Banuba gave us the combination we were looking for: robust video editing tools, easy integration across iOS and Android, and a cost that worked for us. But what stood out most is the team. They’re hands-on, helpful, and quick to ship new features. We feel like they truly want TopThis to succeed and are doing everything they can to make that happen.” — Ryan Jordan, Co-Founder & CEO, TopThis
Results
TopThis just launched its first street dance tournament, New Dawn, which brought together more than 70 of the best street dancers in the world, representing over 20 countries.
TopThis has also been selected for Samsung’s Daily+ experience, giving the platform potential exposure across more than 100 million TVs worldwide. Viewers can discover talent and watch competitions on their TV, then move to the mobile app to participate and vote.
