The extraordinary inside story of how Instagram took over the world In
April 2012, Facebook spent $715 million buying out a photo app that was
less than two years old. Everyone in Silicon Valley thought it was crazy.
In a market crowded with new social media platforms, why would Facebook
spend so much cash on just another photo website - let alone one with a
name as weird as Instagram? Ten years later, and Instagram has a value of
over $100 billion. With over a billion active users, it is second in size
only to Facebook. In No Filter, Bloomberg's Sarah Frier tells the
remarkable inside story of how Instagram became the hottest website on
Earth. With astonishing access to all the key players, she recounts the
fateful meeting of the Instagram founders in 2010. She explores the
company's unlikely acquisition by Facebook, and the internal clashes over
whether it could retain its autonomy. And she reveals how, when Facebook
entered a tailspin brought about by data misuse and fake news, it was
Instagram that came to the rescue. But this is not just a Silicon Valley
story. No Filter reveals how Instagram has transformed global society -
creating a new kind of celebrity, the 'influencer', with unprecedented
control over how we all buy; becoming home not only to photos of pets and
holidays, but also to bullies, racists, and conspiracy theorists; and
helping create a world in which a handful of tech companies have
unprecedented control over how we all shop and think. The result is a book
that raises profound questions about how technology is changing the world.
Is Instagram really just another photo website? Or might it represent the
future of every business on Earth?