"IMDb is open now!" This announcement was exciting news for Chinese mainland moviegoers last week. Launched in 1990 and taken over by Amazon in 1998, IMDb, or Internet Movie Database, is an on-line database for movies, TV programs, and video games. But for three years the website was blocked on the Chinese mainland. Local netizens had to either give it up or use a VPN.
Though China has its own movie critic websites - douban.com and mtime.com are two of the most popular ones -compared with IMDb, which includes criticism, trailers, plot summaries, box office statistics and much more, they are not as comprehensive.
Also, the "water army" scandal involving the Chinese movie industry last year largely reduced the reputation of local movie critic websites. Now as IMDb becomes a new choice, some netizens wrote they can finally "say farewell to the water armies."
So, why was IMDb blocked and why it is open again? Rumors suggest that certain movies on the website go against what the Chinese authorities advocate, or there were extreme negative comments on Beginning of The Great Revival (2009), a movie that celebrates the 90th anniversary of the Communist Party of China.
Even though the ban on IMDb is lifted, some domestic netizens are not optimistic about whether it will remain open.
Some also wonder what negative effects it might have on domestic critic websites.
Wang Pu, an employee at Mtime told the Global Times in an e-mail that their main focus is the Chinese market, and Chinese speaking people around the world, indicating little common ground with IMDb, an English website.
Wang's words were echoed by Liu Jindi, executive director of a Yunan-based media company who said, "Those who do like IMDb will try any way possible to visit the website with or without a block. And because it is an all English website [it has language barriers for many Chinese movie fans]."