The Long Tail

The Long Tail is a term coined by Chris Anderson to refer to the power law relationship between the rank of a product by market share and its level of sales. If represents a product's rank, then its level of sales will be proportional to . Anderson argues that as the number of unique product offerings expands, the traditional order following an 80/20 rule is giving way to a new order in which market share is shifted from the hits (the head of the distribution represented in red) to niche products (the long tail represented in orange).