Free

Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired, argues that companies can often do better by handing out more than they sell. Following a thread from his earlier book The Long Tail, he examines pricing models that give a product or service away, often to draw in users, and then sell a premium tier to some of them, the mix now widely called freemium. Anderson treats free as a business strategy for the digital economy rather than a promotional trick, and looks at what it means for consumers as well as companies. On its release in 2009 the book drew a plagiarism controversy over passages taken from Wikipedia, which Anderson corrected in the digital editions.

Antonio Eram, founder of NETOPIA mobilPay, named it among the books he suggests for young people who want to follow his career path. It also appears on the Ultimate Books to Read List kept by Bogdana Butnar, head of strategy at Poke.