Enshittification, also known as platform decay, is the pattern of decreasing quality of online platforms that act as two-sided markets. Enshittification can be seen as a form of rent-seeking [Rent-seeking].
Here is how platforms die:
- They are good to their users; then
- They abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally
- They abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then,
- They die
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Bibliography
References
Doctorow, Cory. n.d. “The “Enshittification’ of TikTok.” Wired. Accessed November 1, 2023. https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/.
“Enshittification.” 2023. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enshittification&oldid=1182727022.