Enshittification

Enshittification is Cory Doctorow's influential essay articulating a pattern of platform decay observed across major digital services. The concept describes a three-stage lifecycle: platforms initially prioritize users to gain market share, then shift focus to business customers and advertisers once dominant, and finally extract maximum value from users who have become locked in. Doctorow argues this pattern explains the degradation of services like Twitter, Facebook, Google Search, and Amazon, where user experience deteriorates as platforms mature and face pressure to maximize shareholder returns.

The essay became a touchstone in tech criticism and platform studies, providing a vocabulary for discussing the systematic decline of digital services. It resonates with broader concerns about monopoly power, data extraction, and the misalignment between platform incentives and user welfare. The term has entered common usage among technologists, regulators, and critics examining digital platform governance.