Enshittification: Difference between revisions

Line 10:

-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.

#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.

#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.

#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.

==Why it is a problem==

=== Erosion of user experiences ===

===Erosion of user experiences===

...

It can cause frustration among customers, for example Netflix has started locking down movies behind expensive plans, so customers are frustrated into buying a more expensive plan.

=== Adversarial business relationships ===

===Adversarial business relationships===

...

=== Platform death ===

===Platform death===

...

== Possible solutions ==

==Possible solutions==

=== End-to-end principal ===

===End-to-end principal===

...

=== Right of exit ===

===Right of exit===

...

=== Public backlash ===

===Public backlash===

...

=== Alternative platforms ===

===Alternative platforms===

...

==Examples==

=== E-commerce ===

===E-commerce===

In Doctorow's original post, he discussed the practices of Amazon. The online retailer initially drew in users with products sold below cost and free shipping. Once its userbase was well established, more sellers began to sell their products through Amazon. Finally, Amazon began to add fees to increase profits. In 2023, over 45% of the sale price of items went to Amazon in the form of various fees. Amazon also allows sellers the ability to push their listing higher in search results via it's 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 buying/selling protection system. Once it's userbase of largely secondhand buyers and sellers was solidified, eBay raised seller fees and began incentivizing large volume sellers - often actual businesses - with lower selling fees should they subscribe to eBay Store. eBay sellers are also no longer able to leave negative feedback for buyers, greatly reducing the ability of sellers to avoid bad actors. Since then, eBay has introduced promoted listings that are effectively analogous to Amazon's paid sponsored listing system. eBay has also encouraged sellers to use AI generated descriptions that often misrepresent the condition of items being sold, along with opting all of it's users into in-house AI training [[Ebay AI opt in by default|by default]] as of it's April 21, 2025 privacy policy revision.

=== Media streaming platforms ===

===Media streaming platforms===

The enshittification of Netflix is similarly reflected in other streaming platforms such as YouTube TV and Amazon Prime Video, where prices have increased despite a decline (or at least no perceivable improvement) in overall service quality.

=== Search engines ===

===Search engines===

Google...

=== Social media ===

===Social media===

Facebook...

Line 58:

TikTok...

=== Software ===

===Software===

Windows

=== Video Games ===

===Video Games===

Unity...

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 -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.
+#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.
+#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.
+#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.
 ==Why it is a problem==
-=== Erosion of user experiences ===
+===Erosion of user experiences===
-...
+It can cause frustration among customers, for example Netflix has started locking down movies behind expensive plans, so customers are frustrated into buying a more expensive plan.
-=== Adversarial business relationships ===
+===Adversarial business relationships===
 ...
-=== Platform death ===
+===Platform death===
 ...
-== Possible solutions ==
+==Possible solutions==
-=== End-to-end principal ===
+===End-to-end principal===
 ...
-=== Right of exit ===
+===Right of exit===
 ...
-=== Public backlash ===
+===Public backlash===
 ...
-=== Alternative platforms ===
+===Alternative platforms===
 ...
 ==Examples==
-=== E-commerce ===
+===E-commerce===
 In Doctorow's original post, he discussed the practices of Amazon. The online retailer initially drew in users with products sold below cost and free shipping. Once its userbase was well established, more sellers began to sell their products through Amazon. Finally, Amazon began to add fees to increase profits. In 2023, over 45% of the sale price of items went to Amazon in the form of various fees. Amazon also allows sellers the ability to push their listing higher in search results via it's 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 buying/selling protection system. Once it's userbase of largely secondhand buyers and sellers was solidified, eBay raised seller fees and began incentivizing large volume sellers - often actual businesses - with lower selling fees should they subscribe to eBay Store. eBay sellers are also no longer able to leave negative feedback for buyers, greatly reducing the ability of sellers to avoid bad actors. Since then, eBay has introduced promoted listings that are effectively analogous to Amazon's paid sponsored listing system. eBay has also encouraged sellers to use AI generated descriptions that often misrepresent the condition of items being sold, along with opting all of it's users into in-house AI training [[Ebay AI opt in by default|by default]] as of it's April 21, 2025 privacy policy revision.
-=== Media streaming platforms ===
+===Media streaming platforms===
 The enshittification of Netflix is similarly reflected in other streaming platforms such as YouTube TV and Amazon Prime Video, where prices have increased despite a decline (or at least no perceivable improvement) in overall service quality.
-=== Search engines ===
+===Search engines===
 Google...
-=== Social media ===
+===Social media===
 Facebook...
@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 TikTok...
-=== Software ===
+===Software===
 Windows
-=== Video Games ===
+===Video Games===
 Unity...