The Long Tail: A Modern Look at Supply and Demand

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Chris Anderson’s book title The Long Tail refers to a concept he created in 2004 to define how the curve of consumption of all sort of goods looks like today. In a world where abundance is the mainspring, the Long Tail is a curve in which the tail is very long – it actually never comes to zero – in relation to its head. This, in other words, represents the new phenomenon of consumption, boosted mainly by the Internet, where basically hits are being replaced by niches, meaning that a far larger number of products are available and being sold – and although each product sells less it is still being sold. “A very, very big number (the products in the Tail) multiplied by a relatively small number (the sales of each) is still equal to a very, very big number. And, again, that very, very big number is only getting bigger”, says Anderson (24). Before the Internet, Anderson argues, we lived in a scarce and hit-driven world. Although people have always had different preferences, in the hit-driven world they were stimulated by the market to seek the same kind of music, books, or even a basic product as flour, because they were constrained by market contingences like limited space, physical location and bottlenecks of distribution. This scenario, according to him, has profoundly changed with the unbridled availability brought about by the online world. While a small numbers of hits started to be replaced by a huge number of niches in the Tail, people realized the benefits offered by this variety and started to embrace the unconstrained supply. It is easy to understand why the Long Tail is encountering so much receptiveness: now, supply is much more determined by people’s interests and affinities than by geography, which means that the c... ... middle of paper ... ... market offers – and, again, it is so convenient. To realize that Americans are far more (and the word “far” is what matters) dependent on technology than Brazilians was surprising to me, for Brazilians do have an American-based lifestyle. But here, in contrast to Brazil, the Long Tail is already almost the sine qua non of markets. It is in fact everywhere, as mentioned before: in buying shoes, books, coats, grocery, in downloading music, videos, movies, in producing content for blogs, e-communities, reviews, recommendations. This list is endless. And what I think is more interesting about my own experience is that it demonstrates how people can be easily adapted to the new environment: I tested, I liked, and thus I am still doing it. So, I believe it is just a matter of time until the Long Tail culture becomes an imperative condition in every country on earth.

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