The Long Long Tail
“The Long Tail is only relevant to buying products and not any other aspect of the Internet.” Discuss.
The Long Tail refers to the marketing strategy which involves selling a large selection of goods with relatively little quantity of each sold. The term “long tail” was popularised by Chris Anderson in his article in Wired magazine which had mentions of how this strategy was incorporated by firms such as Amazon.com.
The Internet can be credited for the plausibility of the Long Tail form of marketing. The physical limitations of physical space do not apply on the Internet, making the Long Tail a viable market. In fact, Amazon and eBay, two of some of the biggest retailers in the world make most of their money from the long tails of their businesses. The Long Tail is thus definitely relevant in the business which primarily involves a product. Although the practice of this relatively new and what may appear, at first, odd form of marketing has not been utilised widely, its relevance and impact is unquestionably existent.
However, the Long Tail is not necessarily only applicable to businesses involving a product and is actually also relevant to non-business activities on the Internet. The Internet as a platform of communications, being free from geographical and physical barriers, makes the idea of providing supply for even very little demand conceivable. Since the actual costs of hosting services or information on the Internet is very little relative to its physical counterpart, there is a large consumer base for the Long Tail in many aspects of the Internet.
Blogs of Blogspot, which is a service provided by Google, are good examples of a service which incorporates the Long Tail. Many little view counts add up to make the majority of the actual total viewership managed by Google. And Google makes money from advertisers based on the number of views and clicks, making the long tail the main generator of profits for Google’s Blogspot.
YouTube, also owned by
The Long Tail refers to the marketing strategy which involves selling a large selection of goods with relatively little quantity of each sold. The term “long tail” was popularised by Chris Anderson in his article in Wired magazine which had mentions of how this strategy was incorporated by firms such as Amazon.com.
The Internet can be credited for the plausibility of the Long Tail form of marketing. The physical limitations of physical space do not apply on the Internet, making the Long Tail a viable market. In fact, Amazon and eBay, two of some of the biggest retailers in the world make most of their money from the long tails of their businesses. The Long Tail is thus definitely relevant in the business which primarily involves a product. Although the practice of this relatively new and what may appear, at first, odd form of marketing has not been utilised widely, its relevance and impact is unquestionably existent.
However, the Long Tail is not necessarily only applicable to businesses involving a product and is actually also relevant to non-business activities on the Internet. The Internet as a platform of communications, being free from geographical and physical barriers, makes the idea of providing supply for even very little demand conceivable. Since the actual costs of hosting services or information on the Internet is very little relative to its physical counterpart, there is a large consumer base for the Long Tail in many aspects of the Internet.
Blogs of Blogspot, which is a service provided by Google, are good examples of a service which incorporates the Long Tail. Many little view counts add up to make the majority of the actual total viewership managed by Google. And Google makes money from advertisers based on the number of views and clicks, making the long tail the main generator of profits for Google’s Blogspot.
YouTube, also owned by
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