The Long Tail…

Besides the idea of targeting the “niche markets”, another important condition for a long tail business to survive is to effectively guide consumers in the sea of products by “following the contours of their likes and dislikes”. I think that is the key element for the success of Netflix and Amazon, which is to keep on providing information related to people’s purchasing interest and that keep people continue to stay on their site (even they may not be buying things instantly…). I don’t think the online news providers have done a good job in this area, just by looking at the time people spent on the news site.

And before we get too excited about the long tail theory, there are some critics to look at: There is an article published on Harvard Business Review analyzing market datasets to show that

First, the tail is long but extremely flat--and, as online retailers expand their assortments, increasingly so. Second, compared with heavy users, light users have a disproportionately strong preference for the more popular offerings, while both groups appreciate hit products more than they like those in the tail.