In this week’s lecture, we discussed “The Long Tail”. This is a theory that explains how the media world works. 98% of items sell at least one time. Just about everything that deals with selling a product uses The Long Tail method. Ebay and Amazon are top websites for purchasing anything you want. I’m an Ebay shopper myself and enjoy using the website because you can buy anything you want.
Also, I learned that The Long Tail theory reaches out to all people, whether you are an actual producer or just a normal person that just likes to edit videos or movie clips. We can now have our own studio production system within our laptops. We also can distribute a video or clip we edit quicker than usual with just a click of a button. This is referred to as democratization of tools of production and democratization of distribution. It is cheaper and less work to get videos or clips to the web with today’s technology.
I think that the 98% rule is such a fascinating concept. The whole idea that 98% of everything online is at least purchased once is huge. First, there are millions upon millions of items online (probably a number that is too big to ascertain). To imagine that 98% of them have been purchased at least once is astounding. Then, take into account all of the items that exist on the Internet. I don’t know about you, but I have seen some weird stuff. I used to be addicted to eBay, and very rarely did I ever run into an item that was not listed on eBay. As you mentioned, there is also Amazon, which I now use more than eBay. They have everything, too, and usually a lot of one particular item. Now, you also have Etsy where people are making all kinds of handmade creations to sell that are likely not to exist on any other site. For instance, I recently purchased gun-shaped cupcake toppers off of Etsy for a birthday party at a shooting range. That’s the long tail of the Internet at work along with the 98% rule.
I agree with the fact that things are easier and the work ethic that has to be put forth is less, but you have to be careful not to get comfortable with that, instead of being in the hits section of the long tail, people can end up in the niches and even further down the long tail, because just about everyone has access to a computer of some kind. It is a very good tool to have, but your not the only one trying to make a hit or the only one with a computer, but great point though.