Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #357043 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

A witty look at the way cyberspace rewrites retailing's rules
Does the modern world of online markets make you feel like Rip Van Winkle, who awoke from a 20-year nap to find a changed society? Author Chris Anderson has your wake-up call. With hard facts, charts and numbers, plus futuristic insights, Anderson decodes the mysteries of online marketing, Internet-based commerce and other New Age economic realities. His calculations, public feedback and extensive research offer more than just statistics for the sake of proving his point: Online retailing has a long reach into niche markets. This gives its products longevity that stores with finite shelf space can't match, no matter how much steam they get from short-lived, blockbuster products. Anderson credibly explains the decline in box office sales and the rise of niche companies such as Netflix and iTunes. Despite a few redundancies (he believes in thorough explanations), keep on reading. You won't mind: the text is a pleasure, written with wit, style and expertise. We recommend it to Luddites, old school business operators, anyone in entertainment or retail, and New Age Internet-based marketers (although you probably already know just how long this tail can be).

good but over-rated
I was really looking forward to this book but although extremely interesting in parts I was overall disappointed with it. I suppose it could be because I am familiar with the evolution of global media, if you don't then you would probably find it more interesting. The first chapter explaining the long tail is briliant for those new to the concept, but I pretty much got his point there. I would have liked more applications to the future of business and marketing practices.

A worthwhile read for anyone in media, marketing and commerce but not worth the hype it has received.

Interesting read, but gets a bit repetitive.
An interesting read, with great examples comparing internet business models with their bricks-and-mortar counterparts, but the same topics are visited too many times, making the book seem a bit repetitive. The statistical and economic analysis is well filtered into layman's terms. A great "introduction" for budding entreprenuers looking to understand the ideas and potential of the Internet and Web 2.0 business models.