What Is The Long Tail?

The “long tail” is a term used to describe a type of marketing or business model that focuses on a string of “niche” products and services, rather than the top few hot products. The phrase “the long tail” was coined by writer Chris Anderson, who subsequently wrote a best-selling book by the same title. Anderson and his concepts have since become very prominent in the internet world, having an influence even on major search engines. The term “long tail” comes from the look of a graph charting the popularity and inventory of products and services. At one end of this graph appears a short spike where the sales of mega-products can be seen, while on the other end there is a “long tail” mapping less popular products, in other words those with low demand and sales. It is claimed that the future successful business model will be in following the “long tail,” i.e., selling many less popular products and services, rather than chasing the megahits. The arguments of Anderson and others concerning the long tail include that, with large enough storage and distribution, these less popular products could do as well or...