The Long Tail: How Endless Choice Is Creating Unlimited Demand [Import] [Paperback]

Chris Anderson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Random House Business Books (May 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844138518
• ISBN-13: 978-1844138517
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,850,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm the editor of Wired Magazine and the author of The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More and FREE: The Future of a Radical Price.

I live in Berkeley, CA, with my wife and five children.

In my spare time, I have a hobby-gone-wrong in the form of an aerial robotics community I run called DIY Drones and a company I co-founded called 3D Robotics. We develop open source autopilots and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which some people find thrilling and others find worrying. You can make up your own mind: diydrones.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Short Tale of the Long Tail, December 26, 2007

By 

Kashyap Deorah "Righthalf" (Mumbai, India) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Long Tail: How Endless Choice Is Creating Unlimited Demand (Paperback)

Wired magazine packs some of the best technology writers and new economy experts in the world, and with this book Chris Andersen asserts his position as the leader of the pack. This book has the right mix of the essential ingredients of a good business book: enough rigor for business theory but not so much as to make it dry; enough anecdotes to bring the point home but not so much as to make it repetitive; enough opinions and wit to make the reader question but not so much as to make it biased and shallow.

Like all mainstream business books, this one does not resist the temptation to encapsulate all business and socio-cultural phenomena around one simple theory. However, Anderson maintains the humility to admit discovery than claim invention. Expect this concept to become as widespread and oft-quoted (if not more) in understanding the digital consumer economy, than Geoffrey Moore's Chasm was/is in understanding the evolution of hi-tech products.

4.0 out of 5 stars An awakening, August 13, 2011

By 

Robert D. Crane "Director CIAOPS" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Long Tail (Kindle Edition)

For me, this is another one of the books that points out the bleeding obvious. I mean that more in the sense that it is something I know but really haven't taken the time to understand or fully appreciate. This book has succeeded in making me think much deeper about the power of scale, especially when it come to the Internet.

In a world obsessed with the next big hit or the single shining light this book demonstrates that much success lies in satisfying the diversity of choice. Too often popular culture seduces into a popularity contest where there is only room for first place. Too often we fail to celebrate the diversity of interests that is humanity and fail to take business advantage of this.

The ability to reach smaller audiences has now been simplified with technology and the Internet. Now it is possible to services just about every market as quickly and easily as any traditional business model. This book opened my eyes up to the possibilities that I have been largely ignoring and has infused a desire to explore such opportunities with more rigour and discipline.

If you are looking to understand the business opportunity technology like the Internet can provide a business. If you are looking to understand how to succeed even within a restricted audience, then this book is something you should read. In reality, if you are in business then this is certainly a book that you should read as it may just change your idea of where you can be successful. I know it has for me.

4.0 out of 5 stars Some might say common sense, others a wonderful summary of reality, July 15, 2009

By 

Kelly R. Short (Fort Worth, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Long Tail: How Endless Choice Is Creating Unlimited Demand (Paperback)

The Long Tail addresses the fact that the internet enables retailers to address many different market niches, geographic regions, preferences for shopping and purchasing, etc. It also quantifies the value of the products/markets appealing to the less-than-blockbuster niches which is compelling. The take-away for small and medium businesses is that you needn't have the next Twitter, Facebook, or Power Ranger with the Kung Fu grip to have a very successful presence online. In fact, appealing to markets that are not served well by the Amazon's of the world can payoff in spades as long as you focus on satisfying their needs with laser-like focus. This book is a good read for small and medium business owners and managers since they are more likely to satisfy more narrow markets and niches. [...]