The Long Tail Revisited

Chris Anderson wrote an article in Wired six years ago  introducing the concept of "The Long Tail", which is still as valid as it ever was.

The main idea behind his original work was to question the way companies were pursuing profit.   Instead of focusing solely on creating a few blockbuster products that appealed to the masses, he suggested to focus also on creating and making available a large variety of products, that appealed to different market niches.

In some businesses, it turns out that the total sales of  "non blockbuster" products is larger than blockbuster sales, an apparent contradiction to the Pareto Principle.   Although creating and ensuring availability for a large variety of products seems like a very difficult and costly proposition in the physical world,  the online world simplifies scaling significantly, reducing the efforts and costs involved.

If you haven't read Chris Anderson's book, also named The Long Tail, please do.