Cory Doctorow on Enshittification: How the Internet Got Worse

The Three Stages of Enshittification

• 💡 Enshittification describes the process by which user-friendly tech platforms degrade over time, becoming worse for users and businesses.
• 🚀 Stage one involves creating a good product and locking users in through benefits like Prime shipping or digital rights management.
• 🎯 Stage two squeezes users by prioritizing business customers, such as Amazon selling ad placements on search results, making the first result the highest bidder rather than the best match.
• 💰 Stage three involves squeezing businesses so all value accrues to the platform and its investors, exemplified by Amazon's 'Amazon tax' on third-party sellers, forcing price increases across the economy.

Corporate Tactics and Market Dominance

• 📈 Companies like Amazon and Google achieve dominance not by being better, but by buying competitors (like Diapers.com) or using predatory pricing to drive them out of business.
• 🔒 Platforms use tactics like