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Dev tools · March 24, 2026

IT

I took back Video.js after 16 years and we rewrote it to be 88% smaller

What do you do when private equity buys your old company and fires the maintainers of the popular open source project you started over a decade ago? You reboot it, and bring along some new friends to do it. Video.js is used by billions of people every month, on sites like Amazon.com, Linkedin, and Dropbox, and yet it wasn’t in great shape. A skeleton crew of maintainers were doing their best with a dated architecture, but it needed more. So Sam from Plyr, Rahim from Vidstack, and Wes and Christain from Media Chrome jumped in to help me rebuild it better, faster, and smaller. It’s in beta…

In plain words

Video.js is a rebuilt open-source video player library used by billions of people monthly on platforms like Amazon, LinkedIn, and Dropbox. Originally created over a decade ago, it has been completely rewritten to be 88% smaller with a modernized architecture. The project is maintained by a collaborative team including contributors from Plyr, Vidstack, and Media Chrome. Currently in beta, it serves developers building video experiences across web applications.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

What do you do when private equity buys your old company and fires the maintainers of the popular open source project you started over a decade ago? You reboot it, and bring along some new friends to do it. Video.js is used by billions of people every month, on sites like Amazon.com, Linkedin, and Dropbox, and yet it…

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