One point of contention is Mr Anderson’s assertion that sales in the long tail could be as much as 25 percent of sales in the head of the tail. Using a music sales example, sales of “misses” can be substantial when compared to sales of “hits.”
IMHO, the focus on sales of a product misses the point of the viability of the long tail. When talking about the *business* of the long tail profitablility has to be the key metric and not sales.
Read this blog from ZDNet’s Tom Foremski. More on the “Long Tail” from WIRED and some criticism from Lee Gomes with the Wall Street Journal.
*Explore the “Long Tail” at the Whats New Media Wiki and contribute your knowledge of it
1 Comment
October 24, 2006 at 1:40 am
[...] Read this article from Ars Technica and contribute to “The Long Tail” entry at the Whats New Media Wiki. Previously from WNM: and The Long Tail, a critical 2.0 business model?Where are the profits in the long tail? [...]