Interpretation: "Long tail" will bring three kinds of power

We can condense the long tail theory into a simple sentence: our cultural and economic weight is accelerating, shifting from a handful of hot (mainstream products and markets) in the head of the demand curve to a lot of niche products and markets at the tail of the demand curve. In an era when there is no shelf space and other supply bottlenecks, products and services targeted to small groups can have the same economic appeal as mainstream hotspots.

But only if everyone buys, uses, or otherwise shares these new products, the Big bang for the choice of space translates into an economic and cultural force. All of this is a crucial economic trigger: reducing the cost of acquiring niche products. Why is the cost reduced? Different markets have different answers, but the reason is usually related to the three powerful forces in the long tail:

The first force is the popularization of the tools of production.

The best example of this is the personal computer. Computers can put printing, filmmaking, music creation, and everything else in the hands of anyone, and its power means that the "producer" ranks have grown by hundreds of thousands. Amateurs can now do what only a few years ago would have done, with millions of people capable of making short films, music albums or publishing their ideas around the world-and quite a few people did. Because of this, our choice of space is expanding at an unprecedented rate. This will extend the long tail to the right and multiply the choice of products by multiplying the camp.

The second force is to reduce the cost of consumption through universal communication tools.

Although everyone can participate in the creation, but if the creation of content no one appreciates, everything will be meaningless. Personal computers turn everyone into a producer or publisher, but it is the internet that turns everyone into a disseminator.

The most interesting aspect is that this is a "byte to Atom" economics, the secret is to spend a few cents on the online delivery of content and spend a few dollars on trucks, warehouses and shelves to deliver the difference. However, even for tangible products, the Internet has greatly reduced the cost of exposure to consumers. For decades, Wal-Mart has invested billions of of dollars to build its most mature supply chain, offering a full range of goods to millions of consumers around the world at low prices. Today, anyone who opens a shop on ebay will have access to the vast market of Wal-Mart.

The internet has only reduced the cost of reaching more people and effectively improved the liquidity of the long tail market. This liquidity then leads to more consumption, effectively raising the sales curve and expanding the area under the curve.

The third force is to connect the supply and demand, introduce new products to consumers, and push demand to the right along the curve.

This is a variety of forms, perhaps Google's "swarm intelligence" search engine, may be a good song for itunes recommendation, but also may be the effect of oral communications or consumer blogs. For consumers, this means that "search costs" for non-mainstream content have been reduced. In economics, search costs are anything that interferes with your search for a goal. Some costs are non-monetary, such as time wasting, arguing, wrong timing or confusion. Some of the other costs are firm, such as faulty purchases, or being forced to buy at high prices for not finding a cheaper option. As long as you can find more easily the price and product that you are satisfied with, your search cost is reduced.

When individual consumers post user comments or express their likes and dislikes on their blogs, they also play the role of mentor. Because you can easily access this kind of grassroots reference information, you are more likely to find a new product at a faster rate to make you satisfied with the choice. This will encourage you to go beyond your familiar field to explore, and the economic effects are self-evident: moving demand to niche markets.

It is these new technologies that bring consumers together that push demand from the front of the curve toward the long tail. In other words, the third force further expands the demand for niche markets, making the curve more flat and pushing its center of gravity from the middle to the right.

Each of the three forces represents a series of new opportunities in the emerging long tail market. The popularization of production tools has led to the rapid growth of the producers ' ranks; the ultra-high-efficiency of digital economics creates new markets and a new exchange center; Ultimately, the ability to use swarm intelligence to connect supply and demand brings new ways of recommending and marketing, essentially acting as a leader in fashion.

(the author has the long Tail theory, who has been the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine since 2001.) Under his leadership, Wired magazine was nominated by National Magazine Award for five degrees and was awarded the Gold Award in 2005 by the "Magazine of Excellence" (General Excellence). "Long Tail" won the "Business Week" "Best Idea of 2005" award, and "GQ" magazine called "2006 most important creative." The book "Long Tail" has been published by Citic Press. ）