Jean-Baptiste Kempf is the man behind VLC Media Player, one of the most popular media players in the world. He created VLC to provide a free and open-source platform for playing videos and audio files without the need for extra software or codecs. Despite receiving multiple offers worth tens of millions of dollars to put advertisements on VLC, he has refused them all, ensuring that the software remains free and accessible to everyone.
VLC Media Player was first created in 1996 by students at the École Centrale Paris, a prestigious engineering school in France. Originally, it was part of a project called VideoLAN, designed to stream videos across a university campus network. Over time, VLC evolved into a full-fledged media player that could handle almost any video or audio format. In 2001, VLC became open-source, meaning anyone could use, modify, and improve the software for free.
Jean-Baptiste Kempf joined the project in the early 2000s and later became the president of the VideoLAN organization, which oversees VLC’s development. Under his leadership, VLC continued to improve, gaining worldwide popularity for its ability to play virtually any media file without needing additional software. One of the reasons VLC became so successful was its simplicity, efficiency, and lack of advertisements or hidden fees.
As VLC grew in popularity, many big tech companies saw an opportunity to monetize it. They offered large sums of money—sometimes in the tens of millions of dollars—to include advertisements, tracking, or paid features in VLC. However, Kempf refused all these offers because he wanted to keep VLC free and open-source. He believed that adding ads or making users pay for extra features would go against the spirit of the project.
Thanks to Kempf’s dedication, VLC remains a 100% free media player with no ads, no spyware, and no data collection. It is used by millions of people worldwide on computers, smartphones, and other devices. It is also one of the few media players that can run on almost any operating system, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS.
Kempf’s decision to keep VLC free has earned him great respect in the tech community. Many see him as an example of how software can be developed for the benefit of people rather than for profit. Despite turning down huge financial offers, Kempf continues to lead VLC’s development, ensuring that it stays free, open-source, and accessible to all.
Today, VLC Media Player is more than just a tool for playing videos and audio. It represents a philosophy of free and open technology that benefits everyone. Thanks to Jean-Baptiste Kempf and the VideoLAN team, VLC remains a symbol of integrity in the software world, proving that not everything has to be about money.
