No filter - Sarah Frier

WINNER OF THE 2020 FT & MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

'Deeply researched and highly entertaining.' The Times
'Vivid reporting and electric story-telling.' Ashlee Vance, author of Elon Musk
'Clear-eyed and objective.' New York Times

The extraordinary inside story of how Instagram became the world's most successful app

In just ten years, Instagram has gone from being a simple photo app to a $100-billion company. The journey has involved ground-breaking innovations, a billion-dollar takeover, and clashes between some of the biggest names in tech. But it's a story that has never been told - until now.

In No Filter, Bloomberg's Sarah Frier reveals how Instagram became the hottest app in a generation, reshaping our culture and economy in the process. With astonishing access to all the key players - from Instagram's co-founders to super-influencers like Kris Jenner - Frier offers behind-the-scenes glimpses of every moment in the company's life: from its launch, to its unlikely acquisition by Facebook, to its founders' dramatic disputes with their new boss, Mark Zuckerberg.

But this is not just a Silicon Valley story. No Filter explores how Instagram has reshaped global business, creating a new economy of 'influencers' and pioneering a business model that sells an aspirational lifestyle to all of us. And it delves into Instagram's effects on popular culture,
rewiring our understanding of celebrity and placing mounting pressure on all of us to perform online - to the point of warping our perception of reality.

The resulting book connects one company's rise to a global revolution in technology, culture and business. Facebook's decision to buy Instagram was the best investment it ever made. But we're still learning about what it has cost the rest of us.

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One of the best books of the year according to:

The Times
Fortune
Financial Times
Inc
Economist
Newsweek

Sarah Frier reports on social media companies for Bloomberg News from San Francisco. Her award-winning features and breaking stories have earned her a reputation as an expert on how Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter make business decisions that affect their future and our society. She is a frequent contributor to Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg Television. No Filter is her first book. @sarahfrier

Deeply researched and highly entertaining . . . packed with anecdotes and insider accounts . . . it eloquently describes how the app changed millions of lives, generating a new industry of "Instagram influencers".
THE TIMES

A brilliant exploration of the highs and lows of human nature . . . Vivid reporting and electric story-telling.
Ashlee Vance, author of ELON MUSK: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future

Frier landed interviews with Instagram's founders, executives, and competitors to chronicle the company's meteoric growth.
INC - BUSINESS BOOKS YOU NEED TO READ IN 2020

A deeply-reported and beautifully written account of a company that has changed society, fame, culture, business, and communication.
Nick Bilton, author of HATCHING TWITTER: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship and Betrayal

Riveting and wonderfully reported . . .
Will ignite a conversation about the often unconscious role we play in increasing Instagram's formidable, maybe even terrifying, reach.
Bethany McLean, co-author of THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron

Deeply sourced . . . A compelling tale of jealousy.
FINANCIAL TIMES

How Instagram defied the odds to become one of the most culturally defining apps of the decade . . .
Unprecedented exclusive access.
Forbes - SILICON VALLEY'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2020

A deep-dive into the social media platform we all love.
Cosmopolitan - BOOKS YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO ADD TO YOUR READING LIST IN 2020

No Filter manages to be clear-eyed and objective, without sensationalizing or oversimplifying . . . We need a book like this . . . I spend hours staring at the screen, and now I have a better sense of who's staring back.
NEW YORK TIMES

Fascinating . . . Instagram's social impact makes it more than just another story of Silicon Valley business success.
REUTERS

A vibrant play-by-play [account] . . . Irresistible drama . . . Frier is willing to find the cracks in Instagram's glossy appearance.
NPR

One of my favorite books of recent months . . . A meticulously reported, beautifully told story.
THE VERGE - Casey Newton

A comprehensive new history . . . Intriguing
DAILY TELEGRAPH

Inside the darker side of Instagram
EVENING STANDARD

Instagram has reshaped how we eat, shop, talk and present ourselves. In No Filter . . . Sarah Frier offers a rare glimpse into how the company came to be a formidable force in the tech industry.
MASHABLE - BEST TECH BOOKS OF 2020

A lively and revealing account of how the world came to see itself through [Instagram founder] Mr Systrom's lens . . . The tale of nerds who struck gold offers glimpses of Silicon Valley's weirdness.
THE ECONOMIST

No Filter offers an engaging account of how tech founders' ideals inevitably have to be squared with making profits.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

A fascinating business story - but also much more than that . . . Frier is a skilled reporter and an astute and sensitive cultural observer. No Filter is a vital read for anyone seeking to understand the incredible power Silicon Valley executives exercise over us, and the opaque, unpredictable and undemocratic mechanisms by which they do so.
New Statesman

A vivid portrait of clashing Silicon Valley egos
Financial Times - Best Books of the Year: Business

Officially, this is the tale of the photo-sharing app Instagram, but it's also a wider story of Silicon Valley - the fragile egos, the feuds, the deals done around fire pits . . . Mark Zuckerberg is the book's sometimes cartoonish villain, ending staff meeting with the cry: "Domination!"
SUNDAY TIMES - Business Books of the Year