Enshittification: Difference between revisions

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===Platform death===

A potential end-scenario for enshittified platforms is death, usually caused by a large enough exodus of users and business partners, and a general loss of trust. A platform may not truly "die" per se, but it can completely lose the identity that made it successful in the first place - and might not ever regain it. An ongoing example is [[X Corp|Twitter]] post Elon Musk's takeover. Under its new ownership and branding, the platform lost swathes of its ~~userbase~~ and advertisers to alternative platforms (such as Bluesky after its policy shifts proved widely unpopular).

A potential end-scenario for enshittified platforms is death, usually caused by a large enough exodus of users and business partners, and a general loss of trust. A platform may not truly "die" ''per se'', but it can completely lose the identity that made it successful in the first place — and might not ever regain it. An ongoing example is [[X Corp|Twitter]] post Elon Musk's takeover. Under its new ownership and branding, the platform lost swathes of its user base and advertisers to alternative platforms (such as Bluesky after its policy shifts proved widely unpopular).

However, the death of an enshittified platform is not a particularly positive outcome. It uproots a long-established ~~userbase~~ and can greatly disrupt their activities. There is also the chance that alternative platforms lack feature parity with the old platform or that they might not be able to support the massive influx of new users, at least for some time. At worst, data loss could be involved, meaning years' worth of information - if not archived beforehand - could potentially be lost if a platform shuts down in some capacity.

However, the death of an enshittified platform is not a particularly positive outcome. It uproots a long-established user base and can greatly disrupt their activities. There is also the chance that alternative platforms lack feature parity with the old platform or that they might not be able to support the massive influx of new users, at least for some time. At worst, data loss could be involved, meaning years' worth of information - if not archived beforehand - could potentially be lost if a platform shuts down in some capacity.

==Common signs==

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*[[Advertising overload]] to prioritize advertiser profits and encourage users to pay to disable (or limit) ad visibility.

*[[Pay-walling]] or limiting functions or features, usually ones that were free at first. This can also lead to [[monetization overload]]. In some cases, a function or feature might be completely removed.

*Integration of [[~~Bloatware~~]].

*Integration of [[bloatware]].

*Price gouging or [[Value based pricing|surge pricing]].

*In physical products, lower-quality or less durable materials are used to manufacture products to minimize costs. In some cases, this practice is alongside [[planned obsolescence]].

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In Doctorow's original post, he discussed [[Amazon|Amazon's]] practices. The online retailer initially drew in users with products sold at a loss and free shipping. Once its user base was well established, more sellers began selling their products on Amazon. Finally, Amazon began to add fees to increase profits. In 2023, over 45% of the sale price of items went to Amazon through various fees. Amazon also allows sellers to push their listings higher in search results via its paid Sponsored Products program. Doctorow described advertisement within Amazon as a payola scheme in which sellers bid against one another for search-ranking preference, and said that the first five pages of a search for "cat beds" were half advertisements

eBay is another e-commerce site that followed a similar trajectory, initially offering low fees and a robust buyer and seller protection system. Once its ~~userbase~~ of largely secondhand buyers and sellers was solidified, eBay raised seller fees. It began incentivizing large-volume sellers - often actual businesses - with lower selling fees if they subscribed to an eBay Store. eBay sellers are also no longer able to leave negative feedback for buyers, greatly reducing sellers' ability to avoid bad actors. Since then, eBay has introduced promoted listings, which are effectively analogous to Amazon's paid sponsored listings. eBay has also encouraged sellers to use AI-generated descriptions that often misrepresent the condition of items being sold and has opted all of its users into in-house AI training [[Ebay AI opt in by default|by default]] as of its April 21, 2025, privacy policy revision.

eBay is another e-commerce site that followed a similar trajectory, initially offering low fees and a robust buyer and seller protection system. Once its user base of largely secondhand buyers and sellers was solidified, eBay raised seller fees. It began incentivizing large-volume sellers — often actual businesses — with lower selling fees if they subscribed to an eBay Store. eBay sellers are also no longer able to leave negative feedback for buyers, greatly reducing sellers' ability to avoid bad actors. Since then, eBay has introduced promoted listings, which are effectively analogous to Amazon's paid sponsored listings. eBay has also encouraged sellers to use AI-generated descriptions that often misrepresent the condition of items being sold and has opted all of its users into in-house AI training [[Ebay AI opt in by default|by default]] as of its April 21, 2025, privacy policy revision.

===Media streaming platforms===

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 ===Platform death===
-A potential end-scenario for enshittified platforms is death, usually caused by a large enough exodus of users and business partners, and a general loss of trust. A platform may not truly "die" per se, but it can completely lose the identity that made it successful in the first place - and might not ever regain it. An ongoing example is [[X Corp|Twitter]] post Elon Musk's takeover. Under its new ownership and branding, the platform lost swathes of its userbase and advertisers to alternative platforms (such as Bluesky after its policy shifts proved widely unpopular).
+A potential end-scenario for enshittified platforms is death, usually caused by a large enough exodus of users and business partners, and a general loss of trust. A platform may not truly "die" ''per se'', but it can completely lose the identity that made it successful in the first place — and might not ever regain it. An ongoing example is [[X Corp|Twitter]] post Elon Musk's takeover. Under its new ownership and branding, the platform lost swathes of its user base and advertisers to alternative platforms (such as Bluesky after its policy shifts proved widely unpopular).
-However, the death of an enshittified platform is not a particularly positive outcome. It uproots a long-established userbase and can greatly disrupt their activities. There is also the chance that alternative platforms lack feature parity with the old platform or that they might not be able to support the massive influx of new users, at least for some time. At worst, data loss could be involved, meaning years' worth of information - if not archived beforehand - could potentially be lost if a platform shuts down in some capacity.
+However, the death of an enshittified platform is not a particularly positive outcome. It uproots a long-established user base and can greatly disrupt their activities. There is also the chance that alternative platforms lack feature parity with the old platform or that they might not be able to support the massive influx of new users, at least for some time. At worst, data loss could be involved, meaning years' worth of information - if not archived beforehand - could potentially be lost if a platform shuts down in some capacity.
 ==Common signs==
@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 *[[Advertising overload]] to prioritize advertiser profits and encourage users to pay to disable (or limit) ad visibility.
 *[[Pay-walling]] or limiting functions or features, usually ones that were free at first. This can also lead to [[monetization overload]]. In some cases, a function or feature might be completely removed.
-*Integration of [[Bloatware]].
+*Integration of [[bloatware]].
 *Price gouging or [[Value based pricing|surge pricing]].
 *In physical products, lower-quality or less durable materials are used to manufacture products to minimize costs. In some cases, this practice is alongside [[planned obsolescence]].
@@ Line 63: / Line 63: @@
 In Doctorow's original post, he discussed [[Amazon|Amazon's]] practices. The online retailer initially drew in users with products sold at a loss and free shipping. Once its user base was well established, more sellers began selling their products on Amazon. Finally, Amazon began to add fees to increase profits. In 2023, over 45% of the sale price of items went to Amazon through various fees. Amazon also allows sellers to push their listings higher in search results via its paid Sponsored Products program. Doctorow described advertisement within Amazon as a payola scheme in which sellers bid against one another for search-ranking preference, and said that the first five pages of a search for "cat beds" were half advertisements
-eBay is another e-commerce site that followed a similar trajectory, initially offering low fees and a robust buyer and seller protection system. Once its userbase of largely secondhand buyers and sellers was solidified, eBay raised seller fees. It began incentivizing large-volume sellers - often actual businesses - with lower selling fees if they subscribed to an eBay Store. eBay sellers are also no longer able to leave negative feedback for buyers, greatly reducing sellers' ability to avoid bad actors. Since then, eBay has introduced promoted listings, which are effectively analogous to Amazon's paid sponsored listings. eBay has also encouraged sellers to use AI-generated descriptions that often misrepresent the condition of items being sold and has opted all of its users into in-house AI training [[Ebay AI opt in by default|by default]] as of its April 21, 2025, privacy policy revision.
+eBay is another e-commerce site that followed a similar trajectory, initially offering low fees and a robust buyer and seller protection system. Once its user base of largely secondhand buyers and sellers was solidified, eBay raised seller fees. It began incentivizing large-volume sellers — often actual businesses — with lower selling fees if they subscribed to an eBay Store. eBay sellers are also no longer able to leave negative feedback for buyers, greatly reducing sellers' ability to avoid bad actors. Since then, eBay has introduced promoted listings, which are effectively analogous to Amazon's paid sponsored listings. eBay has also encouraged sellers to use AI-generated descriptions that often misrepresent the condition of items being sold and has opted all of its users into in-house AI training [[Ebay AI opt in by default|by default]] as of its April 21, 2025, privacy policy revision.
 ===Media streaming platforms===