WORLD: Long tail theory will be applied to all industries

Chris Anderson, author of 'The Long Tail' and editor of Wired Magazine, highlights the shift from mass culture to niche culture and its effects on the media, Internet, and other industries

The Korea Herald
Thursday, May 31, 2007

By Kim Yoon-mi

Chris Anderson, the author of "The Long Tail" and editor in chief of Wired Magazine, said yesterday his long tail theory will not only be applied to IT and media industries but to all industries because niche micro-cultures are being recognized and growing with the internet.

The long tail theory reverses the traditional 80-20 rule, which says that 80 percent of sales come from the top 20 percent best-selling products. By his theory, products that have low sales volume can compete with or win mass products thanks to the enormous size of the internet's distribution channels.

After citing successful examples of niche products and services from U.S. companies Anheuser-Busch, Google and eBay, Anderson said the shift from mass culture to niche culture, highlighted by the long tail theory, will be applied to physical products as well as internet and media content products.

"All companies are recognizing there are a lot of opportunities and good enough supply chain technology that can find ... that we are not satisfied with one-size-fits-all products," he said at a press conference at Seoul Digital Forum 2007.

Anderson said traditional media companies should figure out how to meet the needs of "narrow interests" that are not available on TV and radio but available online, mostly on Web logs.

"We're competing with 70 million bloggers. The only way that we can compete with the long tail media is to create a place for readers to have their own conversation," he said.

Date Posted: 5/31/2007