Person/Cory Doctorow/Book/25/Enshittification
Enshittification
About
- Nonfiction book by Person/Cory Doctorow.
- Examines why many digital platforms degrade over time and become hostile to users, creators, and smaller businesses.
- Frames platform decline as a predictable outcome of concentrated market power, weak interoperability, and regulatory capture.
Conceptual Overview
- Enshittification describes a recurring platform lifecycle:
- 1. Platforms begin by over-delivering value to users to gain adoption.
- 2. Once users are locked in, platforms shift value extraction toward business customers (advertisers, sellers, publishers, developers).
- 3. After both sides are dependent, platforms extract maximum value for themselves, degrading outcomes for everyone else.
- Core mechanism:
- Control over discovery, ranking, and access lets platform owners unilaterally change rules.
- Switching costs and network effects reduce exit options for users and suppliers.
- Anti-competitive behavior is reinforced when interoperability is blocked.
- Why it persists:
- Short-term incentives favor rent extraction over long-term trust.
- Market concentration reduces competitive pressure.
- Policy and enforcement often lag behind technical and business changes.
- What counters it:
- Interoperability mandates and anti-lock-in design.
- Strong competition policy and enforcement.
- User rights around portability, transparency, and fair access.
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