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5 out of 5
by
Otis
from
Santa Monica, CA | Oct 17, 2006
Interesting Tidbits
- Three forces need to create the long tail:
1. democratize production: give average people the ability to create quality content (movies, music, blogs)
2. democratize distribution: technology to aggregate *all* the content in a genre (Amazon, Netflix, iTunes)
3. Connect Supply and Demand: filters to help people find the niche's they are interested in (Google, recommendations, best-seller lists)
- One quarter of Amazon's sales come from books outside its top 100,000 titles. Thus having a long tail adds ~33% to your bottom line.
- Ranking bestsellers across niche's genre's gives little value. Filters to rank items must be applied within each niche to become relevant. Goodreads could improve here.
- As the number of niche's increases, the ability of people to consume more content within the genre increases. This depends on the genre, but it gives me hope that we can increase the number of people who read through Goodreads, by creating better filters to connect readers of various niche's.
- each year 200,000 books are published in english, and fewer than 20,000 make it into a bookstore. Only 2% of the books published in 2004 sold more than 5000 copies, and can be considered profitable.
- There is another factor that determines why people create content, other than money: reputation.
- Ebay has 60 million active users
5 people found this review helpful
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4 out of 5
by
Lillymonster
from
San Diego, CA | Jan 29, 2009
This book is an exploration of how niche markets are on the rise courtesy of better distribution. And that's a gross summary. Much discussion is given to the rise of the digital world and how it's expanded the marketplace so that there can be a Long Tail Distribution (for you statistics nerds out there)--- beyond the major hits, you can continue to sell (for example) less popular items, and lots of them. There are markets within markets.
A very conversationally written book, by the editor of Wired, it taught me a lot I didn't know about the digital age, the blogosphere, etc, and it's a fun read for entrepreneurs.
For some of us it was required reading for a class, but lemme tell you, it beat the hell out of a coursepack!
2 people found this review helpful
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5 out of 5
by
Brooks
from
Lebanon, OH | Mar 12, 2008
I heard a clip on this book on NPR back in August and have had wanted to read this book for sometime. When I first heard about this book, we were having a conflict with one of our e-commerce customers. There SKU base kept growing and my boss kept saying they did not control their inventory. Well, here is proof positive that they did know what they were doing. The book is written by an editor of Wired magazine. The basic premise is that with infinite variety and reduced (and in many cases zero) distribution costs, the non-hits are where the future of profitability in business. Basically, you need low distribution/production costs (democratize production), high amount of content (democratize distribution – aggregators like Amazon and iTunes), and filters to support decision making. Some good quotes, :Walmarts shelves are a display case a mile wide and twenty-four inches deep. At first glance that may look like everything, but in a world that’s actually a mile wide and a mile deep, a veneer of variety just isn’t enough.” Why isn’t WKRP in Cincinnati out on DVD – licensing for all the classic rock that was fundamental to the TV show that can not be license for the DVD. Why is it so hard to find new releases on Netflicks. Because the Studios have a sliding scale on DVD prices that actually decrease by MONTH. So, $20+ in the first two months and sliding out to $10 by 18 months. Statistics – Average blockbuster store has 3K DVDs while NetFlicks has 60K. Average Borders has 100K books, while Amazon has 3.7M books. Walmart has 3500 CDs (or 55K songs) and Rhapsody has 1.5M songs. Internet retail is about 5% of American retail spending, but growing 25% per year. Another good point, with more options, you have a better chance to be more satisfied and also a better chance to be very unsatisfied. More options does mean more crap, but also more gems. Netflicks allows people who do not live in a university town to see foreign and independent films.
1 people found this review helpful
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5 out of 5
by
Kip
from
The United States | Apr 11, 2008
One of the most interesting non-fiction books I've ever read. Sort of a combination of economics, technology, and culture. Anderson presents compelling arguments and data to identify, examine and extrapolate on a clear inflection point in the macro environment today. Tools of production are more readily available (think desktop publishing, blogging, and digital video), distribution is cheaper and more widely available (think Netflix, iTunes or Amazon v bricks-n-mortar), and a wide range of recommendations / reviews / personally-tailored content identifiers are out there. A sea change is underway.
* Couldn't finish
** I had nothing else to do
*** Passed the time, would be **** for genre / author fans
**** Everyone could enjoy this book
***** Everyone should read this book, I'll read it again
1 people found this review helpful
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4 out of 5
by
Howard
from
San Francisco, CA | Jan 2, 2009
This is one of the best distillations of the trends in business and culture that the Internet has given rise to in the last 15 years. Anderson's basic thesis is that the instantaneous transmission of ideas and thoughts that the Internet allows has given rise to powerful niche cultures that are becoming as lucrative and pervasive as that which we would call mainstream culture. Music and books have been the most obvious beneficiaries of this, but any culture or product can find an audience on the Internet, under Anderson's reasoning.
The "Long Tail" itself refers to the graphic representation of the sales chart for companies like Amazon, Rhapsody, and Apple/I-tunes. While mainstream works (the Head) still sell in abundance, the niche works (the Tail) - while sold in smaller and smaller quantities - still create enough sales to be a significant source of revenue. Such patterns are difficult to sustain in a typical retail shop, with its limited space; but with the Internet, shelf space is not a problem.
This is a great book to read if you want a lot of knowledge in a short period of time. Anderson writes well. His enthusiasm is infectious. His thesis is fascinating.