The Long Tail refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a “normal” or Gaussian distribution (Wiki, 2010). For instance, we used characters actually not too much, but the frequency is high. So these characters take up a fewer large red area in the following picture. In addition, most of characters are hard to use, they are that long yellow tail.
It is the same situation in the marketplace. According to Chris Anderson, as long as the storage and distribution channel is large enough, poor sales of products can share the same or larger market with those which can be a small number of hot products.
Quickflix is Australian largest independent online movie subscription company with a choice of over 40,000 film, TV series, documentary and sporting titles across 400 genres in DVD and high definition Blu-Ray formats. Quickflix delivers rental DVDs to anywhere in Australia free of charge (next day in major cities) and there are no late fees or return deadlines. Since commencement Quickflix has delivered over five million DVDs and now delivers almost 200,000 DVDs each month (Quickflix, 2009).
Quickflix should be a great example to represent the pattern of “Leveraging the Long Tail”. It provides a large enough availability of choice for consumers. Users can not only rent popular movies, but also can find “Long Tail” movies that are rarely found in the video stores. Quickflix also provides an alphabetical searching way for users to search the movie specifically. In addition, by using the rental method, users can find some movies by themselves. It clearly reduces the cost and increase users satisfaction.
In summary, the concept of long tail is an important milestone in Internet development. Internet technology can solve many of the traditional constraints of economics. As a consequence, it provides a wider range of ideas for the businesses. The long tail is a very significant concept that can guide a company to have a tactical way of thinking. Therefore, how to use this concept to gain profit is the most critical key.
Interesting Video shows how Quickflix woks
References:
Anderson, C. 2008. Excellent HBR piece challenging the Long Tail.
Media Release. 2009. Quickflix in world first Hollywood blockbuster production.
O’Reilly, Tim. (2005). What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software.
Wikipedia. 2010. Long Tail.
Kimi200100's Blog 
The concept of long tail is always used for business. Not only that, but it is playing a significant role in current trade. Otherwise, few people notice that it is also used to the field of IT.
Kimi shows us a new area of applying. That benefits our ideas when we build the website. Wonderful…….
Great point, Douglas. I think in the future, economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on the head of the demand toward a huge number of niches in the tail. Web applications are also in the same situation. Leveraging the long tail can provide a wider range of ideas for the businesses.
Thanks for commenting.
The long tail is a interesting topic in business world, as well as the application in internet technology. I suppose the Quickflix case precisely demonstrates the idea and benefits of the long tail leverage. As we can see, The combination of the long tail idea and Internet technology is expected to improve the performance of business and economic growth.
That s correct, Gray. Quickflix rovides a large enough availability of choice for consumers and pay much more attention on “Long Tail” movies. As you mentioned that, the concept of Long Tail exactly improve the performance of business and economic growth. As a consequence, the long tail is a very significant concept that can guide a company to have a better business strategy.
HI, man, it is really nice explain for this pattern. The typcial example-Quickflix, online flat DVD rental, just like Nexflix, the same long tail strategy. You also can see Nexflix,
http://www.netflix.com/
Correct statement, Nicholas. There are some people believe that Quickflix is a clone of Netflix for DVD rental data.
Thanks for commenting.