Business model of Web 2.0 Part 1 "Long tail"

Before entering the main subject, the original text of the proposal of Web 2.0 concept first is "Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of SoftwareIt has a subtitle called "Subject. It is like a design pattern and a business model of next-generation software. That is, Web 2.0 is "Technical trends, information models, and generic terms dealing with changes in business models accompanying themThat's it.

"Ultimately, what is it, Web 2.0?"When"Four conditions of Web 2.0"This is a very strange interpretation, is not it strange? People who feel it interprets Web 2.0 as a technical trend. Well maybe the explanation so far is controversial? The person who felt is interpreting like an information model. Finally, it seems easier to understand this way of thinking ah? People who feel it is a person who can think about a business model-like way rather than a business model.

First of all, let's take a look at the contents of "long tail" which is misunderstanding because it will be an initial step. Long tail is not a meaning of a niche market aimed at all, but since the majority of people tend to understand so easily, let's notice the place there.
· Part 1: Long tail
Before understanding this word, first of all,2: 8 lawIt is necessary to know ". this is,"80% of sales consists of 20% of all productsThe law of. To be exact"Pareto's law"It is a part of the retail industry well known as a rule of thumb for business from ancient times. Now it is said to be statistically correct by the above-mentioned Pareto's law.

In other words, even if we can arrange ten in the store, the state that two of them are sold main is the actual situation of ordinary retail stores.

If you obey this traditional "2: 8 law", 80% will be a product of "dead muscle", there is a danger of becoming defective inventory, just keeping costs will cost. However, in the case of a long tail, the maintenance cost of the muscle product is low in this 80% of death, so it will produce profits over time.

Specifically,AmazonIt is a sample of long tail. As far as the genre of books is concerned, since books can only have as many books as shelves in bookstores, there is a necessity to order a lot of selling items according to the "2: 8 law". But since Amazon does not have a physical limitation of bookshelf, you can put all the books. Given that there are 1000 kinds of books in a genre, it is the real bookstore that puts about 200 kinds of them, "2: 8 law". But Amazon can put as many as 800 remaining items. Then, usually 80% of the remaining to be truncated is profitable even if it is a muscle product.

There is a graph which becomes a sample of long tail in the following site.

Long tail theory - @ IT information management term dictionary

Although the remaining 80% of the goods can be sold a lot, if dusts also accumulate, it becomes a mountain, which raises the profit which can not be ignored. When graphing this part, it looks like a long tail, so it is called a long tail.

So why is this long tail Web 2.0, "Ultimately, what is it, Web 2.0?Let's think about as an example touched on "Old Yahoo! → Google".

Old Yahoo! Is a directory search, and the number of registered sites is limited. In other words, not all sites could be searched. But Google will gather the site fully automatically, so we can collect far more sites. Old Yahoo! In other words, Google has gathered the remaining 80% without throwing away, while it has solely collected 20% worthy sites in the so-called "law of 2: 8".

The fact that this long tail aspect of Google made fruit as business can advertise on the site "Google AdwordsIt is a service called.

Advertising is effective as it touches the eyes of many people. If the road that 100,000 people pass is the same signboard from the signboard of the road which passes only 10 people a day, the effect will be the difference of muddy. Also, if you can make it more visible by twice than twice, three times than twice, consumers will remember, so the advertising effect will be tremendous. These are the basic concepts of advertising.

And even if you replace it with an online advertisement, it is the same, and if you can advertise on a small site as well as advertising on a big site, the exposure will increase and the advertising effect will be greater is. It is "Google Adwords" that made this possible. Google Adwords uses Google search results,Google AdsenseYou can advertise cheaply on both sites participating in. Everything is a long tail, and even if it is a minor search phrase of a dead muscle or a weak site of a dead muscle, it will try to increase the advertisement effect dramatically by putting out an advertisement in accordance with the contents That's it.

Also, Google Adwords is "Four conditions of Web 2.0"Automation" and "lowering the threshold" are particularly effectively utilized. The content of "Adwords" which is the advertisement side is the fully automated system, it can advertise at a price considerably cheaper than the advertisement cost so far, and the threshold is lowered for the side who wants to advertise That's why. In addition, "Google Adsense" which can earn income by pasting advertisement on his site is also fully automated, and even if the content does not change depending on the contents of the article, advertisements are automatically added depending on the context Because it will change, it takes less time to manage advertisements and the threshold is decreasing.

The "automation" of Web 2.0 is to suppress the work through human hands, thereby enabling cost reduction. Also, "lowering the threshold" is a precise result of this cost reduction, improving operability to reduce the workload can also improve work efficiency per unit of time. Long tail is a way to shape these possibilities concretely.

And the business using the long tail in this way can be regarded as one of the concepts advanced from the "2: 8 law" one step ahead, "one thing about the net that has never been before" Because it can be done, it can be said that it is "Web 2.0".

In addition, although it is easy to misunderstand, long tail is the main premise of "2: 8 law" to the last, and in fact, in the scene using "2: 8 law", the long tail It is a feeling that joins. It is not meant to sell it targeting only the remaining 80%. Targeting only the remaining 80% is aimed at a simple niche market, it is a traditional methodology. While misunderstanding about this, sales, planning, entrepreneurial saying "This is a long tail, so these things are not worth right now, if you make a lot, it will make a profit" is wrong.

In addition, it is common mistake to explain the long tail by taking Amazon as an example because "there is no physical restriction on the net, so even if you keep deadly muscle products, the maintenance cost is zero, so the profit comes out" . There is no zero-yen hard disk with unlimited capacity, the hard disk capacity and server maintenance cost etc. are limited. As long as the long tail is compared with the existing method to the last, its maintenance cost is very low, "It can only be left in muscle products of death, far exceeding the cost of maintaining profits generated by muscle products dead" is.

If you want to know more about the long tail, it is recommended to read the following site.

Long tail - Wikipedia

Next time will be the second feature of Web 2.0 business model "Beta version"about.