This week there were several main points that I'd like to capitalise on.
It's amazing really, that I can sit through a lecture attempting to figure out every next step using logical induction, yet there is always some way for digital media and communication to overthrow my logical thinking.
The 80/20 or "power law" model, for example. You'd think that a company producing content to appeal to the mass market side would always succeed and beat the niche market. It just makes sense. As said in the lecture, Transformers will always have the upper hand against some romance journey film made in another language. Sure, people might like romance journeys, but the majority will appeal to Transformers.
This is why I was mindblown with how Amazon approached the matter. A mass market of niches. Appeal not only to the mass market, but have enough supply to attract the niche markets too. Store front? Who needs them? Why spend time on making the face value of your company pretty by sacrificing storage space? No, just buy a warehouse or ten, fill them to the ceiling with books and become one of the biggest book distributors in the world.
I also would like to stress on the attention vs content changeover after the amateurization of the Internet began. Before, there were high profiled publishers writing articles and stories with quality and flair. Now, we have millions of publishers writing blog posts and stories with just flair (okay, and some quality). Before it was the content that was scarce - those who were good writers were worshipped. But now, the attention is scarce. There are so many "writers" on the internet nowadays screaming for attention. Digital evolution on a social scale, eh?
Lastly I'd like to pose a question: do we always pay for what's first in line? Google charge a fee per month to give you live updates on stock prices. People pay money for a book before it gets digitally publicised. But what about things like torrented movies? It's not rare to get your hands on a HD film before it is released on DVD.. but is that why people pay to see a movie in the cinemas?
Thanks for reading and I'll see you all next week :).
I think that niches are the key to success. And maybe it's not the best example ever but look at what is going on in Hollywood. The movie industry keeps failing and there are not many blockbusters. On the other hand you've got dozens of different series of different genres that are succeeding enormously. Maybe it's not only a niche problem, but it's a starting point, right?
ReplyDeleteYou'd have to be pretty confident starting out a new company and calling it Amazon hey? This Amazon person must have understood and anticipated something about the market that others missed, and perhaps are still grappling to understand (eg. Borders). Ted said in tut that he didn't think that it was a fluke that Amazon has experienced such success. Fancy being so sure that people had latent desires mass media weren't fulfilling and staking your business on it. What would make you think/know that the majority was the minority and the minority was the majority?? To realise and capitalise on the notion that there are more people who have tastes that are aberrant from the mainstream and the blockbuster than those who actually desire it.
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Mmm... the idea that the abundance of information leads to scarcity of attention is an interesting one indeed. Your right that now it is the attention that is scarce rather than the content but I'd like to hope that that means that the one's that are truly good writers are still going to be "worshipped" because of it.
ReplyDeleteSure, we have less time to look at the abundance of information - but that also means we will only give the things we are interested in/think are important - the time of day. It makes it harder to crack into the industry without some point of interest... it means people need to think smarter to get our attention. It's a whole new way of thinking about marketing. (e.g. guerrilla marketing)
I agree with Annie here, I think with all this the truly good writers will hopefully still be adored for their way with words, an art of it's own. Good Literature is timeless, or so I have been told :)
ReplyDeleteAs both Annie & Annika said good literature will never die, hopefully, if it does it will not be good.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of Amazon, man those guys took some serious risks when they first kicked off, it took them a good 4-5 years before they actually started turning any mass revenue (billions)but now look at them, killing it and I can't seem them heading anywhere but forward.
Good read Kyle!