What an insightful book! I just finished reading it cover to cover in a day! It enlightened and helped me see the great success stories of our digital age with a new perspective. I always knew the technical reasons behind the successes of eBay, Amazon, iTunes, Rhapsody and the likes of them but never in a way Chris explained it in this book.
It would help one understand the explosion and successes of the new internet businesses and the reasons behind them. It compares the online business with the traditional retail business and explains their edge because of the following forces -
- Current abundance and affordability of the tools of production.
- The dramatic reduction in the cost of distribution in this digital age.
- The prevelance of search filters to connect the suppliers and the actual consumers.
Take for an example, Why Wikipedia is more successful(or, will be) when compared to MS Encarta and Birtannica or how Rhapsody/iTunes are more popular when compared to the traditional retail stores for music like Tower Records.
I'm sanguine that the pattern of Long Tail is ubiquitous in the modern times and I could even relate it with our own business model. I work for an Outsourced Product Development company,GlobalLogic, and I think we fit in the Long Tail of our market segment. Furthermore, there is a Long Tail within our own revenue model - majority of our revenue is driven by minorty of our partners i.e. The 80/20 rule.
I just feel that it could have been written a tad well as lot of examples have been repeated in the book. I think it could be have been wrapped in 150-170 odd pages rather than its current size of 226 pages. Nonetheless, a must read!
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