The LongTail: Why The Future of Businesses Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson
(Hyperion, NY-USA, 2006)
I studied the economics of the Long Tail when I was working on strategies for Netflix earlier this year. Chris Anderson wrote an article on the topic in October 2004. The article featured in Wired Magazine. Anderson's concept was the corner stone for my recommendations to the Netflix execs. Since then, I have wanted to read "The Long Tail".
It has been a few months since and I finally got my hands on this book. I picked it up right after my graduation and I am so glad that the book was everything it promised. I guess I may be late in picking up this book and a lot of you must have already taken the pleasure. Obviously, some of the material seemed a bit outdated to me as it has been a few years since it was first published. But, reading and understanding the principles opened up some new avenues.
Long tail as a concept comes from the Pareto principle (80/20 rule) or the power law. It basically means that 80% of the the effect comes from 20% of causes. In business terms, 80% of the sales come from 20% of the products. Hits are rare - But this does not necessarily mean they are the best. It just means that they are the biggest. Similarly, the flops or products in the tail aren't necessarily bad products. As a matter of fact, all the products have buyers (even though the numbers decrease significantly). Hits may attract the majority but the tails attract niches. The book talks about how Internet has changed the economics of supply and demand. The book revolves around the idea that lesser known or less popular products in total account for a huge amount of sales in comparison with just the hit few. This does not mean we undermine the hits but just that we also focus our attention on the tail.
Even though the Long tail wave may have lost its novelty in the US, we see that the phenomenon is yet to fully bloom in places like India.
Anderson's article was released a couple of years before he published this book. The book is not bad, but the article makes you fall in love with the concept. Seth Godin wrote an interesting article on the same topic last month. Click here to read his article. For additional reading, I recommend 'Wikinomics' along or before reading this book.
Long tail as a concept comes from the Pareto principle (80/20 rule) or the power law. It basically means that 80% of the the effect comes from 20% of causes. In business terms, 80% of the sales come from 20% of the products. Hits are rare - But this does not necessarily mean they are the best. It just means that they are the biggest. Similarly, the flops or products in the tail aren't necessarily bad products. As a matter of fact, all the products have buyers (even though the numbers decrease significantly). Hits may attract the majority but the tails attract niches. The book talks about how Internet has changed the economics of supply and demand. The book revolves around the idea that lesser known or less popular products in total account for a huge amount of sales in comparison with just the hit few. This does not mean we undermine the hits but just that we also focus our attention on the tail.
Even though the Long tail wave may have lost its novelty in the US, we see that the phenomenon is yet to fully bloom in places like India.
Anderson's article was released a couple of years before he published this book. The book is not bad, but the article makes you fall in love with the concept. Seth Godin wrote an interesting article on the same topic last month. Click here to read his article. For additional reading, I recommend 'Wikinomics' along or before reading this book.
1 comment:
I remember the presentation you gave at the Netflix HQ. It was wonderful. Keep in touch. - A
Post a Comment