Free cover
Good Books rating 4.0
Technical
  • ID: 2740
  • Added: 2025-10-16
  • Updated: 2025-10-16
  • Formats: 6
  • Reviews: 2
Reviews
ig.ft.com · Unknown · 2025-10-19
fascinating 4.00

Free explores how digital technologies are changing business models by offering products and services for free, often as a strategy to attract users and upsell premium offerings. The book covers various innovative business models, not just digital products, but also physical items like silverware and bikes.

Free delves into the impact of digital technologies on business models, highlighting the increasing trend of offering products and services for free. This strategy, often referred to as 'freemium,' is widely used to attract users and then upsell them to premium offerings. The book is not limited to digital products; it also discusses how this model applies to physical items like silverware and bikes. Anderson explores various innovative business models, making a compelling case for how giving things away can sometimes be more profitable than charging for them. The book is a fascinating study of how the 'radical price' of zero is transforming both online and offline industries.


Quick quotes

    Free describes the fundamental business strategy to a company's survival.

    Free is a study of how digital technologies are changing life and business through the diffusion of 'a radical price' - Zero.

    In general, Free is an elaborate book on innovative business models, mostly for online, information-rich contexts.

blog.pricebeam.com · Unknown · 2020-12-10
insightful 4.00

Free by Chris Anderson is an insightful analysis of the past and present of free products and services, exploring how digital technology enables new economic models. The book argues that as more things become free, reputation and time will become more valuable than money.

Free by Chris Anderson offers a comprehensive look at the rise of free products and services in the digital age. The book delves into how technological advancements have drastically reduced production and distribution costs, making it possible for many goods to be offered for free. Anderson explains how this shift is reshaping economic models and consumer behavior, with reputation and time becoming key factors in decision-making. The analysis is steady and scrupulous, providing a balanced view of the opportunities and challenges in this new economic landscape. While some might dismiss the book as propaganda for Silicon Valley, it stands as a thoughtful exploration of a significant economic trend.


Quick quotes

    It is not fair to dismiss Mr Anderson as a digital utopian who is in intellectual and financial hock to Silicon Valley companies: Free is more than propaganda for the West Coast clan.

    It is largely an insightful, steady and scrupulous analysis of the past and present of free products and services, and how digital technology encourages fresh experiments.

    He explains why this has become possible - why new technologies, particularly the Internet, have caused production and distribution costs in many sectors to plummet to an extent unthinkable even a decade ago.