IMDb

IMDb began on October 17, 1990, as a personal project by British film enthusiast Col Needham. He posted a collection of Unix shell scripts listing actresses with beautiful eyes to the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies. Volunteers soon contributed cast and crew credits, plot summaries, and trivia, turning the database into a collaborative effort. In 1993, the database moved to the World Wide Web, and in 1996 it incorporated as the Internet Movie Database Ltd. Amazon acquired the company in 1998 for an estimated $55–70 million, providing the resources to scale into the world's largest film and TV database.

As of September 2025, IMDb catalogs roughly 25.9 million titles and 14.8 million individuals, covering movies, TV shows, podcasts, video games, and streaming content. Its core products include the free IMDb.com and mobile app, the subscription service IMDbPro for industry professionals, the ad-supported streaming service Freevee (formerly IMDb TV), and the X-Ray feature integrated into Amazon Prime Video. Box Office Mojo, a subsidiary, tracks box office revenue. The site ranks as the 40th most visited website globally and 35th in the United States.

IMDb generates revenue through IMDbPro subscriptions (estimated $50–100 million annually), advertising on the free site and app (estimated $200–300 million annually), affiliate links to Amazon and other retailers, and streaming licensing for Freevee content. Its estimated valuation is between $2 and $5 billion, driven by its massive user base, advertising revenue, and strategic value to Amazon. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with a significant operational office in Bristol, UK. The site is available in over 30 languages and localized for major markets, with its largest traffic from the US, India, the UK, and Canada.

IMDb's brand identity is built on authority, completeness, and community. Its logo, a simple, bold white 'IMDb' on a yellow background, is instantly recognizable. Marketing focuses on trust in the user rating system (a 1-to-10 scale widely cited by media), utility as a one-stop shop for any film or TV question, and community engagement through user reviews and trivia contributions. The brand is often perceived as a neutral, data-driven reference rather than a critical arbiter, though its ratings carry cultural weight.[edit]