Wagging the Long Tail: From Push to Pull to Create the Writing Center 2.0
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Date
2009
Authors
Grinnell, Claudia
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Beginning with a series of speeches in early 2004 and culminating with publication of a Wired article Chris Anderson describes how the long tail effects current and future business models. Anderson later extended it into the book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.
The concept of frequency distribution with long tails has been studied by statisticians since the late 1940s. The distribution and inventory costs of businesses like Amazon.com, eBay.com and Netflix allow the realization of significant profits selling small volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers, versus selling large volumes of popular items. Customers who buy hard-to-find or "non-hit" items describe the demographic called the long tail.