The Long Tail: New Economics of Culture and Commerce - Chris Anderson (2006)
NUMBER: 69
Genre: Non-fiction; Origin: USA; Pages: 250
Satisfaction rating: 8.5
OVERVIEW:
This book shows that the future of business does not lie in hits - the high-volume end of a traditional demand curve - but in what used to be regarded as misses - the endlessly long tail of that same curve. As our world is transformed by the Internet and near-infinite choice it offers consumers, so traditional business models are being overturned and new truths revealed about what consumers want and how they want to get it.
MATTHEW’S COMMENTS:
My intention with this reading log was to look specifically at fiction, however a quick glance reveals an increase in non-fiction over the last year. That said, this is the first time I have polluted the list with a book so closely related by my work (screen industry research), but of course Anderson’s theory of the long tail is particularly relevant for those who write and read blogs among other things.
Basically Anderson’s theory looks at how the internet has lowered (and in many cases removed) the cost of distribution of information, goods and services and how this has all but removed the constraints of physical bottlenecks. As he claims, no longer is it about hits and misses, instead it is about hits and niches. If you want to understand the theory you may be happy to read the article from which has been expanded into this novel, however the beauty of this book is in the case studies. While Amazon, iTunes and Netflixs among others build a profile of the financial returns possible, it is the discussion of the long tail of knowledge that I enjoyed the most, here Anderson looks at Wikipedia, the Britannica and blogs.
Unless I gave you the address to this blog personally, odds are that you probably found it via Google, here we see the long tail and its navigation in practice. Beyond economics, this novel offers an insight to human behaviour, how we consume, and in part how we nest. By the end of the book, I like many, were set to help others navigate the long tail through some content aggregation business… well, it sounds good in theory.
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