Editing Enshittification (section)

==How it works==
<blockquote>''"It is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two-sided market," where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them."''

-Corey Doctorow, ''Wired,'' 2023</blockquote>Enshittification at it's core is a three-stage process.

# Companies offer their product or service to users with great incentive to try and build an established userbase. It is usually during this stage the company is the most focused on providing a positive user-experience and listening to feedback.
# Once a stable userbase is locked in, companies offer access to the userbase to business customers with great incentive. This stage is usually when the user-experience begins to decline as the company is now more focused on catering to partners such as suppliers and advertisers.
# When both users and business partners are locked in, the company shifts it's surpluses to the shareholders. It no longer has any incentive to grow or maintain  quality for either of it's customer bases and relentlessly seeks profit at any rate for the shareholders. Companies at this stage also tend to have such a large market presence that switching barriers naturally (or intentionally) fall into place for those trying to leave for alternatives.