Long tail distributions are a relatively arcane fascination by statisticians. Roughly, a long tail mimics the 80/20 rule; also known as a Pareto distribution. But in a series of articles and books by Chris Anderson (editor of Wired), it's clear that Long Tail markets have emerged as a very interesting observation of how the global culture and technology expansions have shaped consumer businesses. As a short example, Amazon has more revenue (and assumed profitability) from the long tail of its book offerings; than from the Hits segment of their offering. While Amazon is the place to go to buy the latest top 25 books on the New York Times' list of best books; the larger market for Amazon is to suggest and sell you books that are far from a 'Hit'. In short,... READ MORE