The Long Tail

The first time the expression "The Long Tail" was phrased was in October 2004 by Chris Anderson in Wired Magazine to describe certain business and economic models such as eBay. Businesses with distribution power can sell a greater volume of otherwise hard to find items at small volumes than of popular items at large volumes.

• When storage and distribution costs are high only the most popular products can be sold
• Where inventory storage and distribution costs are insignificant, it because economically viable to sell unpopular products.

The Long Tail does have cultural and political impacts. Where the cost of inventory storage and distribution is high, only the most popular products are sold. However, where the Long Tail works, the minority are catered for to, and individuals are offered greater choice.