Col Needham
Col Needham is a British technology entrepreneur best known for founding the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) in 1990. Initially developed from a personal film diary and contributions from fellow film enthusiasts, IMDb became the first dedicated searchable movie database on the internet. By the late 1990s, it had gained immense popularity, frequently appearing at the top of search results for movie-related inquiries. Following its acquisition by Amazon in 1998, Needham continued to lead the site, emphasizing the importance of user contributions to its success. A pioneer in telecommuting, he managed IMDb from his home while fostering a collaborative atmosphere that encouraged volunteer input. Over the years, IMDb expanded significantly, adding features like IMDbPro and IMDb TV, and it remains one of the most widely visited entertainment sites globally. Needham's passion for technology and movies has shaped both his career and the continuous growth of IMDb, which now includes millions of titles and active user participation.
Subject Terms
Col Needham
Founder and CEO of the Internet Movie Database
- Born: January 26, 1967
- Birthplace: Manchester, England
Primary Company/Organization: Internet Movie Database
Introduction
Hewlett-Packard technological engineer Col Needham founded the Internet Movie Database, commonly known by its web address acronym IMDb, in 1990. The searchable entertainment industry database grew from the movie credit lists of Needham and other online film enthusiasts. IMDb had emerged as one of the most popular entertainment websites by the late 1990s, in part driven by its frequent appearance at the top of results returned for movie-related Internet searches. Needham remained with the Internet Movie Database after its 1998 acquisition by online entertainment e-commerce leader Amazon. The Internet Movie Database's growth placed him within the ranks of the leading Internet entrepreneurs. He is among the pioneers of telecommuting to maintain a role as the site's managing director and is also known for his business philosophy, which is centered on the vital importance of the site's visitors' contributions to its success.
Early Life
Colin “Col” Needham was born on January 26, 1967, in the Denton, Tameside, neighborhood of Manchester, England. He received his early education at Audenshaw School and Hyde sixth form (currently Hyde Clarendon). His childhood interests centered on technology and entertainment. Needham became a technology entrepreneur at fourteen years of age, when he founded a computer games software business. He attended the University of Leeds, graduating with a bachelor's degree with honors in computer science in 1988.
Shortly after graduation, Needham began his adult career in technology at the computer company Hewlett-Packard in Bristol, England, where he was an engineer in the field of technology research. Outside work, he continued to pursue his childhood interests in technology and in the movies. These twin passions were combined in his creation of a computerized informational database on the movie industry that would shape his future career. He also began sharing his passion on Internet discussion boards such as the Usenet group rec.arts.movies.
Life's Work
Needham continued to pursue his interest in movies while working at Hewlett-Packard, building the personal film diary and film credits database he had begun as a teenager. Beginning in the late 1980s, he and other film enthusiasts collated his personal database with other film information lists on the online Usenet bulletin board site rec.arts.movies. The earliest data points included actor and director credits and biographies of deceased filmmakers. The database soon expanded to include television programs.
Another breakthrough came when Needham made the collated database searchable through his authorship of Unix shell scripts. The first searchable version appeared in 1990 and is considered the origin of today's IMDb. The database was the first dedicated movie website and the first to be available for searching free of charge. The site was also housed mostly on volunteer server space in its formative years. Early servers included that of Cardiff University in Wales, where site volunteer Rob Hartill was a graduate student. Interested users initially had to install the database locally on their home computers. The site became known as the Internet Movie Database and adopted the www.IMDb.com web address in 1993. Needham is credited as IMDb's founder and chief executive officer (CEO).
Volunteer site participants continued to build the credit lists that form the site's core, adding such categories as writers and composers. The uploading of digital content has increased exponentially since IMDb's founding, in terms of both content and number of participating users. The IMDb had been among the first sites to encourage users to upload such information, much of which had been locally stored on personal computers, as had the original movie lists at IMDb's core. This was a departure from the early days of the Internet, when users had mostly downloaded available content.
Hartill, Jake Dias, Murray Chapman, and Ron Higgins joined Needham as early volunteer workers, most of whom held salaried jobs at other companies. Hartill was responsible for the technological changes needed to create the first IMDb website. Needham left Hewlett-Packard in 1995 to devote himself to the IMDb full time, reflecting its rapid growth and success. The core group of volunteers also decided to transform the site into a commercial operation after a lengthy debate. The IMDb incorporated in the United Kingdom in January 1996. Its volunteer workers were also its first shareholders. and Needham charged the cost of its server space to his personal credit card. Improved technological capacity resulted in improved speed and service quality.
The IMDb quickly became a leading entertainment site and frequently topped Internet search engine results for queries based on movie and television titles, greatly increasing the site's traffic. Data submissions from the site's visitors also continued to increase, expanding the site's database but overwhelming its server space and volunteer workers. Needham had developed no master business plan when launching what became IMDb; it was created before the development of e-commerce. The site made its first advertising revenue in 1996. Its first movie advertising revenue, also in 1996, came from its promotion of the Fox blockbuster Independence Day. Needham soon began receiving buyout offers from numerous companies. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos was one of the Internet entrepreneurs offering to purchase the IMDb, realizing its potential to aid in the sales of his site's entertainment products.
Amazon acquired the IMDb in April 1998, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of the site. The acquisition provided technological improvements and upgrades, but Needham remained to run the site as managing director, telecommuting from his Bristol, England, home office. He is one of the pioneering business leaders in the use of instant messaging and other electronic communication avenues to telecommute. The site collaborates with Amazon's staff and advisers, but it is known for successfully maintaining its original business practices with little interference from the parent company.
The formerly volunteer IMDb staff became salaried employees. Employee Murray Chapman relocated from Australia to Seattle, Washington, to serve as liaison to Amazon. The IMDb began raising revenue through advertising sales, content licensing, business partnerships in movie ticket sales, and sales of advanced site features and subscription services. Needham often credited the participation of site visitors as one of the key forces behind the site's depth, growth, and popularity, noting (in his words) that the customer is the celebrity. Others have credited his ongoing leadership as crucial to IMDb's continuity and success.
Users also study and debate content, and both users and site editors check for factual accuracy. The site has added features such as the popularity rankings Starmeter and Moviemeter, as well as features designed for film and television industry workers. The paid subscription service IMDbPro.com was added in 2002. The subscription service provides more detailed information on a variety of industry data. IMDb was also enhanced with features addressing current events, entertainment industry news, and information on upcoming films.
The IMDb celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2010, with Needham still at the helm. The site remains among the world's most popular online sites dedicated to the entertainment industry and had grown to include almost six million titles as of 2019. It has acquired two subsidiaries, Withoutabox and Box Office Mojo. In 2019, IMDb TV, a streaming service offered without charge through advertisement support and originally called Freedive, was released.
Personal Life
Needham married his wife Karen in 1989. The couple have twin daughters. Needham amassed a personal fortune as a result of his acquisition of Amazon shares through that company's 1998 purchase of the IMDb.
Needham has retained a lifelong passion for the twin hobbies that launched the IMDb: movies and technology. He has a vast collection of films, and he has stated that he was watching the 1981 motion picture Body Heat on the date the IMDb was founded. He has cited Vertigo as his favorite film. In 1999, he received a Webby Award from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for his role in the founding of the IMDb.
Bibliography
Aspray, William, and Paul E. Ceruzzi. The Internet and American Business. Cambridge: MIT, 2008. Print. A series of essays that examine the commercialization of the Internet, including social networking, information searching, and entertainment. Covers business models, e-commerce, and the successes and failures of dot-com companies.
Johnson, Brian David. Screen Future: The Future of Entertainment, Computing, and the Devices We Love. Santa Clara: Intel Press, 2010. Print. Exploration of the potential future impacts of computers on the television and entertainment industries. Covers televisions, phones, cars, and computers as personal entertainment delivery systems.
"Press Room: IMDb Statistics." IMDb, May 2019, www.imdb.com/pressroom/stats/. Accessed 28 Oct. 2019.
Rose, Frank. The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories. New York: Norton, 2011. Print. The contributing editor for Wired magazine discusses the impact of the Internet and the impact of digital technology on the social, production, business, and marketing aspects of the entertainment industry.
Tapscott, Don. Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print. A description of the Net Generation, young adults who have grown up in a digital world, based on extensive surveys. Provides insight into their revolutionary use of technology, including the active participation vital to sites such as the Internet Movie Database, and its impact on society.
Ulin, Jeff. The Business of Media Distribution: Monetizing Film, TV and Video Content in an Online World. Burlington: Focal, 2009. Print. An insider's look at the media distribution field from a longtime Lucasfilm employee. Traces the process of creating profits in the industry from a project's concept through its distribution across multiple markets, including online aspects.