Show HN: Origits – Video Platform for Websites

Over the past few years, we have been building a Youtube/Vimeo/Wistia style video platform, but with the advantages of an ad server. The core idea is not to just embed or insert a particular video into the webpage, but to setup a spot and feed it with video dynamically based on conditions or requirements, e.g., run a video a/b test, target video in a different language based on the visitor's browser language setting, or just simply share video on a clean page.

The idea to build it didn't come overnight; we ran an outsourcing agency for a while, mostly helping others setup their tech stack on their websites. We built a lot of internal tools to speed up the process, and when overall video growth increased, we faced the problem that even tech-savvy website owners have many limitations when it comes to working with video. We took our tools, rebuilt them into a single product, and built Origits.

Our main goal was to simplify the process of managing video on website pages. That was the biggest issue for websites we worked with: they had technical or staff limitations on editing the site source, or the site stack just didn't allow it. We build one header JS tag that controls player installation and manage everything related to serving the rest: target video by conditions set in the panel and track events.

It is technically not easy to build such a service; we had to build the encoding engine, player (we decided to build it from scratch, not using existing open-source), manage panel, and management JS tag. It took a while to polish and test the product (Nobody knows how much we fought with CORS). The product is not a wrapper around a 3rd party product or API. We do not really believe in a two-day MVP, and we build products that work properly, simply, and are flexible enough to be run by non-technical people who, for instance, run a Shopify store.

The goal is not to build another YouTube clone; no way. We just want to simplify the approach to working with video on websites. It can be much easier and faster, and it can bring a lot of benefits. We make money by charging subscription fees based on usage, both storage and bandwidth, and are going to add a pay-as-you go model a bit later.

What do you think, guys? Does it have some potential? Our home page is: https://origits.com

Also (taken from the Show HN rules): >Please make it easy for users to try your thing out, ideally without barriers such as signups or emails.

We have a video sharing page that does not require any registration at https://app.origits.com/share but has limitations (sorry, but we are not Google; we have to pay usage fees from our income), so you can easily give the product a try there.

Let us know what you think! Thanks.