Salon.com > Jack Schofield

The economics of abundance

Thu, 24 Mar 2005 14:41:00 +0000

The Internet is changing the entertainment business from one that is driven by hits to one that will make most of its money from misses. This is good news for consumers because it means more choice, and we all like things that will never make the bestseller lists for CDs, books or movies. And although it might sound strange, this "new economics of abundance" is already the basis of the Net's most successful companies, such as Amazon, eBay and Google. Internet start-ups are now asking one another: "Are you long tail?"

The phrase was popularized by Wired magazine editor in chief Chris Anderson, who started the ball rolling last year with a series of talks and a long article called "The Long Tail." That caught the imagination of bloggers, who circulated and applied the meme. "The day I knew I was on to something was when people saw the applicability in places I hadn't anticipated," says Anderson. "It's become, in some sense, an open-source meme. They're doing a lot of research and feeding it back to me. That's why I started the Long Tail blog and, unbelievably, it works."

Beyond toys for boys

Thu, 10 Feb 2005 18:53:00 +0000

Consumer electronics gadgets such as digital cameras, MP3 music players and mobile phones are often dismissed as "boys' toys" -- and this is simply wrong. They are girls' toys, too. In fact, in the United States, women are buying more of them than men. According to America's Consumer Electronics Association, which runs the giant Consumer Electronics Show, women accounted for $55 billion of the $96 billion spent on electronics gear in 2003. In most categories except video games, women have either caught up or are already on top.

The market power of female electronics buyers doesn't seem to have made the impact in the U.K. that it has in the U.S., South Korea and Japan. In the U.K., people who are interested in gadgets still probably think about men's magazines such as T3, Stuff and Boys Toys, rather than the trendier, women-friendly Web sites such as ShinyShiny, Popgadget and GirlsStuff.co.uk. Consumer electronics manufacturers have relatively few products aimed specifically at women, and women may feel patronized if they visit popular electronics shops.