A great book for every online reseller to read.

Chris Anderson clearly couldn't say more using less... This book could have been resumed in 20 pages instead of 256 pages.

The book was very well organised, and filled with case studies. I think its an essential read for those who plan on getting more involved in e-commerce in general. It highlights the fundamental changes to retail the 'tail' brings, and explains in depth what the drivers are. Some of the case studies are over emphasised, and I would have loved for more examples extending beyond digital goods that this can be applicable to!

This book is a great example of a concept that should have been an essay. In fact, I understand it started out as an article; while the additional examples and anecdotes are nice, I have strong feelings about things that are longer than they need to be. I don't regret reading it, but in the future I will point people to the article rather than the book.

With unlimited supply, our assumptions about the relative roles of hits and niches were all wrong ... A Long Tail is just culture unfiltered by economic scarcity.

(1) the tail of available variety is far longer than we realize; (2) it's now within reach economically; (3) all those niches, when aggregated, can make up a significant market

The curse of broadcast technologies is that they are profligate users of limited resources ... this is the world of scarcity. Now, with online distribution and retail, we are entering a world of abundance.

What I would consider to be the main thesis of the book:

A very, very big number multiplied by a relatively small number is still equal to a very, very big number.

the root calculus of the Long Tail: the lower the costs of selling, the more you can sell.

One side observation that reminds me of how much recommendations matter in finding a job, even though theoretically job creators and job seekers should be able to find each other easier than ever before:

Recommendations serve as shortcuts through the thicket of information

if left unchecked, noise - random content or products of poor quality - can kill a market.

Side note that leads to the book I'm now reading:

One of the consequences of living in a hit-driven culture is that we tend to assume that hits are a far bigger share of the market than they really are. Instead, they are the rare exception ... The problem is that we have a hard time putting rare events in context.

One explanation for why the Boomers and the Millenials will never see eye-to-eye:

We've had a change from "I want to be normal" to "I want to be special."

A fun little factoid that makes me rage:

Recall the early attempts to sell movies at retail for $70 to $80 - a price that was calculated based on the amount of money a typical family would pay at the box office to see their favorite movie two to three times.

Long Tail businesses treat consumers as individuals, offering mass customization as an alternative to mass-market fare.

In the end I gave this book 4 stars because the concept is pretty important, but it's a low 4.

gutes buch, zur damaligen zeit sicher bahnbrechend, heute scheint alles nicht mehr ganz überraschend zu sein, vieles ist jetzt offensichtlich, weit verbreitet und bei den meisten bekannten unternehmen angekommen (bsp. potential der nischen, starke produktindividualisierung), trotzdem interessant es aus heutiger sicht zu lesen. vieles hat sich in der tat als wahr herausgestellt (der autor nimmt zum beispiel die rolle der influencer vorweg, auch wenn er sie noch tastemker nennt), aber: manche firmen spielen dann doch heute auch keine rolle mehr (rhapsody), andere hingegen haben sich genau so verändert wie prognostiziert (netflix). witzig ist, dass podcasts nicht vorkommen oder als wichtige nische „erkannt“ werden, etwas schade, dass es dann doch sehr viel um bekannnt große unternehmen geht (google, amazon, etc.) und eine übertragung auf kleiner unternehmen (oder auch dienstleistungen) fehlt

I knew about the Long Tail Concept during my Marketing Master study and while reading this book, many aspects and the whole history (which is fascinating) of the Long Tail was explained and analysed. Even though the book was first published more than a decade ago, its content remains up-to-date, the examples too. Give it a go if you want to dig deeper into the concept, will be nice to read if you are into marketing or economy in general :) Few things the book touched on were forces that birthed the Long Tail (democratization in production, distribution, and how supply and demand find each other faster and easier), economy of scarcity vs. abundance, the paradox of choice (whether it is there or how it can be twisted) and how filters boost confidence when exploring down the Tail, and many more. You may disagree with some ideas or conclusions, but still the idea was presented 15 years ago, and still continued to apply, so, impressive.

Интересна концепция и невероятно явление (макар и да става ясно, че не го е открил автора, а Безос).

Интригуващото икономо-психологично поведение на масата и бързо развиващите се пазари, карат света на парите и поведението на хората свързано с тях да се променят ежегодно.

Концепцията е добра. Kнигата прави препратки към 80/20, основни demand/supply, както и креативност и поведение на масите.

Всичко това може да се прочете в страницата на wiki за long tail.

In The Long Tail, Chris Anderson offers a visionary look at the future of business and common culture. The long-tail phenomenon, he argues, will "re-shape our understanding of what people actually want to watch" (or read, etc.). While Anderson presents a fascinating idea backed by thoughtful (if repetitive) analysis, many critics questioned just how greatly the niche market will rework our common popular culture. Anderson convinced most reviewers in his discussion of Internet media sales, but his KitchenAid and Lego examples fell flat. A few pointed out that online markets constitute just 10 percent of U.S. retail, and brick-and-mortar stores will never disappear. Anderson's thesis came under a separate attack by Lee Gomes in his Wall Street Journal column. Anderson had defined the "98 Percent Rule" in his book to mean that no matter how much inventory is made available online, 98 percent of the items will sell at least once. Yet Gomes cited statistics that could indicate that, as the Web and Web services become more mainstream, the 98 Percent Rule may no longer apply: "Ecast [a music-streaming company] told me that now, with a much bigger inventory than when Mr. Anderson spoke to them two years ago, the quarterly no-play rate has risen from 2% to 12%. March data for the 1.1 million songs of Rhapsody, another streamer, shows a 22% no-play rate; another 19% got just one or two plays." If Anderson overreaches in his thesis, he has nonetheless written "one of those business books that, ironically, deserves more than a niche readership" (Houston Chronicle).

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

Understanding the long tail, a good read

The book conceptualizes the long tail and provides example of the long tail as a strategy. Interesting read, specially the first half. It is recommended for everyone working in a commercial function or anyone interested to learn about the paradigm shift of digital.

Far too long. The end of the book was the long tail of The Long Tail. If you get 1/3-1/2 way through it and find you already know the examples he is going to give, you are probably right. In addition, the book is about technology so it is dated--and thus the end can be left unread.

It's quite interesting reading this book today, when online shopping and being online is so much more natural and an every day thing. I found myself nodding while reading this book and going "Yep, that's happening now". A very good read that shows how we got to where we are - before we really started moving.

Ideas now seem a bit outdated in 2022 world IMO (economies of scale from successful creatives or the 1st/2nd place winners of categories will allow them to continue to dominate + attention fatigue continues to allow the winners to be the easier pick or option for consumers, ie paradox of choice is still very powerful)

Refreshing (in today’s age) and interesting to hear the optimism of the advent of the web2.0 era though