WebRTC powers billions of video calls worth billions of dollars. Companies built empires on it.

The people who actually built it? Most work regular jobs. Contribute nights and weekends. Never made a fortune from it.

This is their story.

The Google engineer who almost quit

2010. Google engineer named Justin Uberti. Working on Google Talk. Frustrated with video calling state.

The problem: Every platform incompatible. Plugins everywhere. Flash. Java. Nightmare.

His idea: Video calling standard in browsers. Native. No plugins. Just works.

Management response: "Nice idea. Not a priority."

His choice: Quit and build it himself? Or convince Google it matters?

He stayed. Worked nights and weekends. Built prototype. Showed it working.

Management reconsidered. "Okay. You can work on this. Full time."

His team: 5 engineers. Small budget. Big ambition.

Years later: WebRTC powers Google Meet. And hundreds of other products. Justin never became Silicon Valley billionaire. He built something more important.

Current status: Still at Google. Still working on web standards. Still not famous outside tech circles.

His reward: Knowing billions of people use something he helped create. And regular Google salary.

The volunteer who debugged Firefox

2012. Developer named Randell Jesup. Works at Mozilla. WebRTC still buggy as hell.

The problem: Firefox's WebRTC implementation crashing. Random freezes. Connections failing.

The official team: 3 people. Overwhelmed. 500+ bug reports.

Randell's status: Not on the WebRTC team. Working on other stuff.

His nights and weekends: Fixing WebRTC bugs. For fun. For free.

Six months later: Fixed 200+ bugs. Made Firefox WebRTC actually usable.

His compensation: Zero dollars. Some free Mozilla t-shirts. Respect from community.

Why he did it: "It needed doing. Nobody else was doing it."

Current status: Still at Mozilla. Still fixing bugs. Still not rich.

His legacy: Millions use Firefox video calls daily. None know his name.

The student who made it work on mobile

2013. Grad student named Philipp Hancke. WebRTC works on desktop. Barely works on mobile.

The problem: Mobile browsers underpowered. Connections fail. Battery drain insane.

Official response: "Mobile support eventually. Maybe."

Philipp's response: "I'll figure it out."

Nine months of work: Optimizing. Testing on every Android device he could find. Borrowing friends' phones. Maxing out credit cards buying test devices.

Result: Patches making WebRTC mobile viable. Submitted to project.

Compensation: Grad student stipend ($20K/year). No bonus. No stock options.

Why: Thesis topic. But also: "Someone had to."

Impact: WhatsApp Web video calls. Messenger. Dozens of mobile apps. All possible because Philipp figured out mobile WebRTC.

Current status: Works at company using WebRTC. Not famous. Not rich. Knows he helped billions of mobile users.

The developers you've never heard of

Thousands contributed to WebRTC. Most never paid. Most remain anonymous.

Random contributors:

The person who fixed Chinese firewall issues: Chinese developer. Submitted patches making WebRTC work through Great Firewall. Never asked for credit. GitHub username is all we know.

The Safari debugger: Apple engineer. Fixed WebRTC bugs in Safari. Nights and weekends. Apple finally adopted WebRTC in 2017 partly because community fixed their bugs for them.

Documentation writers: Dozens of people wrote guides, tutorials, examples. No compensation. Just sharing knowledge.

The translators: Volunteers translated documentation to 30+ languages. Unpaid. Unknown.

Bug reporters: Thousands reported bugs. Tested. Provided logs. Free quality assurance.

Why would anyone do this?

Financial motivation: Zero. Nobody getting rich from contributing.

Fame: Barely. Tech community knows some names. General public: zero recognition.

So why?

The reasons they give:

"It needed doing." Simple as that. Problem existed. They could solve it. So they did.

"Scratching my own itch." Needed feature for project. Built it. Shared with everyone.

"Learning." Best way to learn is building. WebRTC is complex. Great learning opportunity.

"Community." Being part of something bigger. Contributing to shared infrastructure.

"Idealism." Belief in open web. Open standards. Technology for everyone.

"Career." Contributions look good on resume. Led to job opportunities.

"Fun." Some people solve problems for enjoyment. Weird but true.

The IRC channel nobody knows about

#webrtc on Freenode (now Libera.chat). Where WebRTC actually got built.

The channel: 24/7 discussion. Questions answered. Bugs debugged. Ideas shared.

The people: Mixture. Google engineers. Random contributors. Students. Professionals. Everyone equal.

The vibe: Helpful. Collaborative. Sometimes argumentative. Always productive.

The impact: Real decisions happened here. Not in corporate boardrooms. In IRC channel.

Stories from the channel:

3am debugging sessions: People across timezones helping each other. "Try this." "That worked!" Hours of unpaid collaboration.

The day Safari broke everything: Apple updated Safari. Broke WebRTC. Community rallied. Fixed in 48 hours. Apple adopted fixes.

Answering the same question 1000 times: "How do I get started?" Same question. Every day. People patiently explaining. For free.

Celebrating victories: Someone gets it working. Everyone celebrates. Strangers on internet genuinely excited for each other's success.

The companies that benefited

Who made billions from WebRTC:

• Zoom (billions in revenue)
• Discord (valued $15+ billion)
• WhatsApp (sold for $19 billion)
• Numerous startups and unicorns

How much they paid WebRTC developers: Nothing. Used open-source code. Legally. Ethically. But still: zero.

Some gave back: Google employed core team. Mozilla employed developers. Some companies contributed features.

Most gave nothing: Used code. Built products. Made money. Never contributed back.

Is this fair? Depends who you ask.

Developers' perspective: "We built it for everyone. We're happy people use it. That was the point."

Capitalist perspective: "Should have charged for it if you wanted money."

Open source philosophy: "Knowledge shared benefits everyone. Money isn't everything."

What they lost

Billions in potential revenue. If WebRTC was proprietary and licensed, core developers could be wealthy.

Recognition. Steve Jobs got credit for iPhone. Mark Zuckerberg for Facebook. Who built WebRTC? Most people don't know.

Time with family. Thousands of hours. Nights. Weekends. For free.

Other opportunities. Time spent on WebRTC couldn't be spent on paying side projects.

What they gained

Technology used by billions. Their code runs on billions of devices. Daily.

Impact on humanity. Enabled remote work. Telemedicine. Online education. Global connection.

Community. Friendships formed. Collaboration. Being part of something meaningful.

Skills. Deep expertise. Problem-solving experience. Career opportunities.

Pride. Built something important. Changed the world. Even if world doesn't know their names.

The philosophical question

Should open source developers be compensated?

Arguments yes:

• Created enormous value
• Companies profited massively
• Fairness demands payment
• Sustainability of open source

Arguments no:

• They chose to contribute
• Open source philosophy is sharing
• Recognition isn't monetary
• Payment changes incentives

Reality: Complicated. No simple answer.

What's clear: World benefits enormously from open source. Mostly built by unpaid or underpaid volunteers.

Current state

WebRTC continues. Still open source. Still community-driven.

New contributors: Join constantly. Young developers. Experienced engineers. From everywhere.

Old guard: Some still contributing. Many moved on. Legacy remains.

The work: Never done. Bugs to fix. Features to add. Standards to evolve.

The reward: Still mostly intangible. Satisfaction. Community. Impact.

What we owe them

Using WebRTC daily. Most people are. Unknowingly.

Never thanking developers. Can't thank people you don't know exist.

Taking it for granted. Just works. Magic. Don't think about humans who built it.

Could we do better? Probably. Acknowledge open source contributors. Support projects financially. Contribute if able.

At minimum: Remember that free software isn't magic. Real people built it. For free. For you.

The bottom line

WebRTC changed the world. Remote work. Telemedicine. Global communication.

Built by: Mostly unpaid volunteers. Nights and weekends. For love of craft. For idealism. For community.

Benefited: Everyone. Billions of people. Trillions of video calls. Countless businesses.

Compensated: Barely. Regular salaries. Maybe some recognition in tech circles. Mostly satisfaction.

The people:

• Justin, who convinced Google it mattered
• Randell, who fixed Firefox bugs
• Philipp, who made mobile work
• Thousands of nameless contributors
• IRC channel regulars helping strangers
• Documentation writers nobody thanks
• Bug reporters nobody pays

They didn't do it for money. Good thing. Because they didn't get any.

They did it because: It needed doing. They could do it. They believed in open web.

Result: Technology enabling human connection. Across distance. Across barriers. Freely available to everyone.

That's the story nobody tells. The unglamorous reality. The volunteers. The nights and weekends. The labor of love.

Next time you're on video call, remember: Someone built this. For free. For you. For everyone.

Maybe say thanks. Contribute to open source. Support projects. Pay forward.

Or at minimum: Remember it's not magic. It's humans. Generous ones.

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Built with community contribution: Try NotesQR, using WebRTC.

Want to contribute to WebRTC? Check the GitHub repository. They need your help.

Questions? Connect on LinkedIn or X.com.