Book description
What happens when there is almost unlimited choice? When everything
becomes available to everyone? And when the combined value of the
millions of items that only sell in small quantities equals or even
exceeds the value of a handful of best-sellers?
In this ground-breaking book, Chris Anderson shows that the future
of business does not lie in hits - the high-volume end of a
traditional demand curve - but in what used to be regarded as misses -
the endlessly long tail of that same curve. As our world is
transformed by the Internet and the near infinite choice it offers
consumers, so traditional business models are being overturned and new
truths revealed about what consumers want and how they want to get it.
Chris Anderson first explored the Long Tail in an article in
Wired magazine that has become one of the most influential
business essays of our time. Now, in this eagerly anticipated book, he
takes a closer look at the new economics of the Internet age, showing
where business is going and exploring the huge opportunities that
exist: for new producers, new e-tailers, and new tastemakers. He
demonstrates how long tail economics apply to industries ranging from
the toy business to advertising to kitchen appliances. He sets down
the rules for operating in a long tail economy. And he provides a
glimpse of a future that's already here.
Chris Anderson is Editor-in-Chief of
Wired
magazine, a position he took up in 2001. Since then he has led the
magazine to five National Magazine Award nominations, winning the top
prize for General Excellence in 2005, a year in which he was also named
editor of the year by
AdAge
magazine. Previously, he was at the
Economist
,
Nature
, and
Science
magazines. He has worked as a researcher at Los Alamos and served as
research assistant to the Chief Scientist of the Department of
Transportation. He lives in Northern California with his wife and four
children. He can be reached at www. thelongtail. com.
