**Enshittification** is the evolutionary endpoint of technocratic venture capital enterprises in which the value of a product or service is directed away from its users and toward its principal investors. It results from a model that builds value by providing a free service to attract users (network effect), attracts businesses by providing a large audience for advertising, then captures both groups by creating high exit penalties (switching costs), and shifts the surpluses back to itself. This is known as the **toxic-platform lifecycle**. > [!quote] Cory Doctorow > First, 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.[^1] The term was [introduced](https://www.alia.org.au/Web/Web/Events/Conferences/Info-Online-2023/the-ensittification-of-everything.aspx) in late 2022 by Cory Doctorow and subsequently [developed](https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/) in early 2023 in response to [revelations](https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2023/01/20/tiktoks-secret-heating-button-can-make-anyone-go-viral/?sh=daee2666bfd4) surrounding how TikTok boosts content for preferred brands and creators. Enshittification is a natural result of **chokepoint capitalism**, a model where a company is able to extract value from customers despite providing mediocre services because the indirect consequences of leaving are higher than putting up with poor quality. > [!quote] Cory Doctorow > When switching costs are high, services can be changed in ways that you dislike without losing your business. The higher the switching costs, the more a company can abuse you, because it knows that as bad as they’ve made things for you, you’d have to endure worse if you left.[^2] Social media platforms tend to be the primary example used to illustrate this process. Switching costs invariably include a **collective action problem**, where once a social group has established itself it is difficult to agree on whether to leave and where to go. But the concept can be applied to many product cycles in which value is built independently by the craftsperson, scaled by the industrialist, then monetized by the capitalist. Enshittification is a variable to consider while building a regenerative business model. Enshittification results from the principles and practices espoused by the [[advantage economy]]. ### Examples - Google CEO Sundar Pichai, [actively worked](https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/) to make the search engine worse in order to increase corporate earnings. [^1]: Doctorow, Cory (2023). The enshittification of TikTok. *Wired Magazine*. 23 January, 2023. https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/ [^2]: Doctorow, Cory (2022). Social quitting. *Locus Magazine*. 9 January, 2023. https://locusmag.com/2023/01/commentary-cory-doctorow-social-quitting/ %%