[Book review] The long tail

The Long Tail, written by Chris Anderson, is a book about the shift from hits to niches. According to the book this trend is fueled by three forces:

1. Democratize tools of production (e.g. PC)

2. Democratize the tools of distribution (e.g. Internet)

3. Connect supply and demand (Google, blogs, recommendations)

This shift can be seen the best online through online sites as Amazon, eBay, Netflix, iTunes etc, where an almost unlimited amount of products/services is offered within a product category. Where a typical Wallmart has one small stand with classical music, focusing only on the most known 'hits', on iTunes you would be surprised if you could not find the music you are looking for. iTunes and other online retailers are able to offer such a huge variety of product, because in contrast to Wallmart, it has limited to no costs of shell space. Also many of the physical products on sale at Amazon are actually located in the shops, on which behalf Amazon sells the stuff, therefore Amazon does not bare the costs of storage. Although on the internet the effect of the Long Tail is the easiest to spot, the trend is also visible in the offline world. Mail-order companies with almost endless catalogues offer far more than a regular shop and larger cities have more specialised shops (soap shops). In supermarkets the number of different kinds of flour you can buy nowadays indicates that people want to choose.

Link with innovation.

The Long Tail has already lead to many different kinds of innovation. It reorganizes the value chain creating new partnerships like the one mentioned between Amazon that sells online on behalf of other shops. It democratizes the tools of production and enables many users to create their own products (music, video's, news and also physical products)m which leads to prosumers: consumers creating their own content and offering these to others, leading to more choice for other users and a new competition between professional content and user generated content that compete side by side. Furthermore, the long tail creates more niche opportunities for companies to create new value for users through more choice: The endless choice of different kinds of coffee at Starbucks has been replicated in other industries like jam, chocolate, etc. Hits will continue to exist, but more choice will attract people to your shop or website.