Great article on IMDB.com and it's success

[TheEnforcer]

Thought this would be ab interesting article for people to read. Talks about his starting the site as a hobby to becoming one of the most successful entertainment sites out there.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/bu...=1&oref=slogin

From a Small Stream, a Gusher of Movie Facts
E-MailPrint Reprints Save

By RICHARD SIKLOS
Published: May 28, 2006
BRISTOL, England

Skip to next paragraph

Jonathan Player for The New York Times
Col Needham, the founder of the Internet Movie Database, or Imdb, maintains the site from a suburb of Bristol, England, but says the headquarters is on the Internet. Amazon.com bought Imdb in 1998.
THE closest that Col Needham gets to corporate life is the Dilbert calendar in his neat office — a converted bedroom in a quaint house in the ancient village of Stoke Gifford, a suburb of Bristol, the harbor city that is 90 minutes west of London by train.

As the founder and managing director of the Internet Movie Database, Mr. Needham might just be the archetype of the telecommuting Web-head. The site he founded and runs, www.imdb.com, ranks as the 10th-most-popular entertainment spot online, according to ComScore Media Metrix. It had 18.6 million unique visitors in April, a 67 percent surge from a year earlier.

In Stoke Gifford, Mr. Needham works solo — without even an assistant — but is in constant contact by instant message with other employees scattered across the globe and at the Seattle headquarters of Amazon.com, which acquired the business eight years ago. "Everybody assumes that we have a massive office complex on Wilshire Boulevard," Mr. Needham said with a grin. "I always say, 'We're headquartered on the Internet.' "

[gonzo]

I remember when Yahoo used to be a mailing list too. And how some of the cool business trades would post 10 new and cool websites. Its amazing to see how some things evolve.

[TheEnforcer]

Yup. It's interesting to watch over time how things come to be the successes they are.

[Jace]

Another great example of a small site turned big that we have all noticed is onemodelplace.com, that place went from a few profiles when I first noticed it, to almost 140,000 profiles on there now

[SykkBoy]

There are times when I don't know what I'd do without imdb, hehe
great reference site and also fun to contribute and point out the errors of others on their contributions ;-)

[cj]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy

There are times when I don't know what I'd do without imdb, hehe

me too ;-)
one of the most powerful sites on the net ... basically it feeds information to every entertainment publication out there. one of my favorite sites!