And yes, there is a shift in sales to the tail-but there is also an increasing number of titles that do not sell at all." "Consumers can find videos online that they can't find anywhere else. "In the paper we show that both the long-tail and superstar effects take place-but that each comes with a twist," Elberse says. Which view is right? Elberse and Oberholzer-Gee find some support for both ideas. Why would you watch some average-quality film, these authors asked, if your favorite titles are always available, for instance via video-on-demand? According to this superstar theory, video purchases will become more homogenous when distribution costs fall. Ten years ago, however, Philip Cook and Robert Frank’s The Winner-Take-All Society: Why the Few at the Top Get So Much More Than the Rest of Us argued exactly the opposite. Long-tail proponents believe that consumers have very different tastes, and online retailing with its low distribution costs is finally able to deliver just what consumers want. In the video industry, the long-tail view suggests that consumers will purchase an increasing number and a wider variety of videos, everything from Hollywood classics to obscure foreign films. The results were reported in their recent working paper, "Superstars and Underdogs: An Examination of the Long-Tail Phenomenon in Video Sales," and have significant implications not only for the types of films studios decide to fund in future, but also strategies employed at retail. Intrigued with these questions, HBS assistant professor Anita Elberse and associate professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee analyzed the distribution of revenues in the U.S. A bestseller itself, Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More is currently one of the more visible proponents of this perspective.Ĭould the long tail really provide increased profits for Hollywood? And is it true that it is better to be Netflix with its tens of thousands of titles than a Blockbuster store, stocking a limited number of popular movies? Long-tail enthusiasts claim that low-selling books, CDs, and movies, which are not available in brick-and-mortar stores, will collectively take up a majority share of the market over time. Much has been written about the long tail phenomenon in the entertainment industries. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.įor technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dekanatssekretariat (email available below). If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. You can help adding them by using this form. We have no bibliographic references for this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about. This allows to link your profile to this item. If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.įor technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dar:wpaper:63391. You can help correct errors and omissions. All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors.
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