Who Maintains and Develops the libvpx Library

This article provides a direct answer to who develops and maintains libvpx, the free software video codec library. It covers the origins of the software, its acquisition, and the organization currently responsible for its ongoing updates and support.

The Primary Maintainer: Google

Google is the main developer and maintainer of the libvpx library. The library is distributed as part of the WebM Project, an open-source initiative dedicated to developing high-quality, royalty-free video formats for the internet.

libvpx serves as the official reference software implementation for the VP8 and VP9 video coding formats. Because Google runs the WebM Project, Google software engineers do the vast majority of the development, optimization, and security maintenance for the library.

History and Acquisition of VP8

The technology behind libvpx did not originate at Google. It was originally created by On2 Technologies, a personal computer video codec company. On2 developed the VP8 video compression format as a proprietary technology.

In February 2010, Google completed its acquisition of On2 Technologies. Shortly after, in May 2010, Google released the VP8 source code to the public under a royalty-free, creative commons license and launched the WebM Project. Alongside this release, Google published libvpx as the open-source reference library for encoding and decoding VP8 video.

Ongoing Development and the WebM Project

Following the release of VP8, Google and the WebM Project community began developing its successor, VP9. The libvpx library was subsequently expanded to include the reference encoder and decoder for VP9.

Today, Google remains the primary contributor to the codebase, ensuring that libvpx is highly optimized for various hardware architectures, including x86 and ARM. The library is a critical component of modern web infrastructure, powering video playback on major platforms like YouTube and within major web browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.