The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More - Book by Chris Anderson

Anderson defines the 'long tail' as the seemingly endless tail of a sales curve for each product (There is a huge amount of products of which only a few copies are sold, but in total they form a huge market). While the market was dominated by hits from the mid-20th century, since the 90s products that would never have appeared in stores before (because they did not generate concentrated demand) can be purchased online, as online markets have no restrictions due to scarce shelf space or high storage costs. A prerequisite for the long tail is efficient filters (such as tags, customer reviews) that allow customers to easily find the niche product they are looking for. Anderson distinguishes between two types of filters. Traditional pre-filters (talent or product scouts) try to predict the success of brands and products. For a long time, they were the only filters used by industry and retail. With the internet economy, post-filters (customer reviews) became possible, which measure the actual success from the mass of all offers. And precisely because the number of offers for the consumer is increasing, filters against this noise will continue to gain importance. Imagine you want to find songs from an exotic subcategory in a database with two million songs. In the past, you could search through a comparatively manageable offer in a music store. Your niche might not have existed. Today, it is possible for you to find your desired niche if the corresponding filter exists and the song has been correctly tagged. The more noise (information irrelevant to the buyer) a market produces, the more in demand filters will be.