The visible light communication (VCL) based indoor positioning technology combines lighting with communication. Compared with the traditional indoor wireless positioning means, the VCL based indoor positioning technology shows many advantages such as green, energy saving and environmental protection, low cost, no electromagnet interference, high precision and wide applications, and it has broad application prospects. We summarize the principles and characteristics of two types of VLC based indoor positioning technologies based on photoelectric detectors and image sensors. We focus on the major problems that exist in VLC based indoor positioning technology such as irrational layout of light source, inter-symbol interference and receiving device with low sensitivity and stability. In addition, some solutions are also proposed, such as proper encoding, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, diversity reception and filtering techniques. Finally, the future development trend and application perspective of VLC based indoor positioning technology are discussed.