Understanding the long tail of online business

Found this intriguing article that explains the longtail of business [via Emergic.org]

Bnoopy expounds on Chris Anderson's piece in Wired and in a few quick paras sums up why Google, eBay, Amazon, Rhapsody, Netflix and iTunes have radically changed the way we do business and how they reach out to small, specialized and niche markets/buyers in efficient ways.

He thinks we can apply the same to software dev, and sums it up thus: "Think about how to serve millions of markets of dozens instead of dozens of markets of millions. Serving the head isn’t a bad strategy. You can build a great business. But, figure out how to serve the tail of your market efficiently and you’ve got a blockbuster."

Comment: The problem with the tail sometimes is that once you find it - and get to the end of it - it's already a dinosaur.
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