Question
The 'long tail' of revenue in the context of the internet refers to a business model where the majority of revenue comes from a large number of products that sell in small quantities, as opposed to the traditional model where the majority of revenue comes from a small number of best-selling products. This model is made possible by the internet, which allows businesses to reach a global market and sell a wider variety of products than would be feasible in a physical store.
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Tech companies have dangerously overtaken our economy. In 2006, the top five companies by market capitalization were ExxonMobil, General Electric, Microsoft, CitiGroup, BP and Royal Dutch Shell, worth an average of $288 billion each. In 2016, the top five companies were Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook, worth on average $476 billion. Early adopters of the internet harked its ability to bring a "long tail" of revenue to individual artists and content creators. Not so. Today in the music business, 80% of the revenues are derived from 1% of artists. Compare this to the 1980s, where 80% of music industry revenues came from 20% of the content. Silicon Valley bigwigs like Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and early Facebook investor, believe in themselves as brilliant savants whose sheer genius birthed the age of the internet. Thiel is an avowed libertarian and rejects the value of government aid or interference. The irony is that "the internet was conceived and paid for by the US ...
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