Read it to me:
Enshittification is a term coined by writer Cory Doctorow to describe the process by which online platforms and services degrade in quality over time, as they prioritize profit over user experience.
The Three Stages of Enshittification:
Doctorow outlines a three-stage cycle that many digital platforms follow:
- Good to Users: Initially, the platform offers a high-quality service, often at a loss (subsidized by venture capital), to attract a large user base and establish a dominant market position. Users are the primary beneficiaries, and competitors are typically vanquished during this phase.
- Good to Business Customers: Once users are “locked in” due to network effects (e.g., all their friends are on the platform), the company shifts its focus to serving its business customers (such as advertisers or third-party sellers). This often comes at the expense of the user experience, through increased ads or algorithmic changes.
- Extraction of Value for Shareholders: In the final stage, the platform abuses both users and business customers to maximize short-term profits for its shareholders and executives. The platform becomes a degraded product, offering minimal value to maintain engagement while extracting maximum revenue.
Examples and Impact:
The term has been widely adopted and was named the American Dialect Society’s 2023 Word of the Year. Examples often cited include:
- Google Search: Gradually filling results pages with ads and AI-generated content rather than the most relevant organic results.
- Facebook: Overloading user feeds with sponsored and “recommended” content, making it difficult to see posts from friends and family.
- Amazon: Increasing the fees charged to third-party sellers and filling search results with paid advertisements for low-quality products.
- Uber: Implementing surge pricing for riders while simultaneously reducing payments to drivers.
- Twitter(now X): Limiting API access for third-party apps, reducing moderation, and promoting the owner’s posts through algorithmic changes.
The concept highlights how lack of competition and the ability to “lock in” users allows companies to degrade their services without fear of losing their audience.