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  • Published: 30 September 2013
  • ISBN: 9781409065739
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

Free

How today's smartest businesses profit by giving something for nothing




The author of The Long Tail unveils his radical vision of the new economy

What happens when advances in technology allow many things to be produced for more or less nothing? And what happens when those things are then made available to the consumer for free?

In his groundbreaking new book, The Long Tail author Chris Anderson considers a brave new world where the old economic certainties are being undermined by a growing flood of free goods - newspapers, DVDs, T-shirts, phones, even holiday flights. 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. He shows how the flexibility provided by the online world allows producers to trade ever more creatively, offering items for free to make real or perceived gains elsewhere. He pinpoints the winners and the losers in the Free universe. And he demonstrates the ways in which, as an increasing number of things become available for free, our decisions to make use of them will be determined by two resources far more valuable than money: the popular reputation of what is on offer and the time we have available for it. In the future, he argues, when we talk of the 'money economy' we will talk of the 'reputation economy' and the 'time economy' in the same breath, and our world will never be the same again.

  • Published: 30 September 2013
  • ISBN: 9781409065739
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

About the author

Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson is a former Officer of the Ulster Defence Regiment and also worked for five years in Intelligence Gathering. He is now a freelance journalist and contributes to numerous newspapers including the Irish Times, the Irish Independent and the Belfast Telegraph. He lives in Portadown.

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Praise for Free

Free is a brilliant primer for the bit generation

The Times

An enjoyable jaunt through business land

Daily Telegraph

An insightful, steady and scrupulous analysis

Financial Times

Even if you're a freesheet-reading Spotify user, this is the best £18.99 you'll ever spend

GQ

The latest must-read title in adland

The Independent

There are many books about the workings of the new economy, but Anderson ... [is] ... one of the most reliable and skilful guides. Free is worth the money

Management Today

Turns traditional economics upside down

Guardian