enshittification

noun

en·​shit·​ti·​fi·​ca·​tion in-ˌshi-tə-fə-ˈkā-shən 

en-

impolite

: the final stage in a process by which a digital platform (see platform sense 6b) is gradually modified to maximize shareholder profits while degrading the experience of those who use the platform

Here is how platforms die: 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. I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two-sided market," where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, holding each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.

—Cory Doctorow

Enshittification isn't a glitch, it's the model. Platforms hook users, squeeze customers, then extract everything.

—@bduperrin, on X, formerly Twitter

Once you start raising prices and restricting common features, you're already on the path toward enshittification.

—Kyle Barr

broadly : a state of deterioration (as in a product, service, or industry) caused by the drive to maximize profits

It is part of the enshittification of everything. Chocolate bars are shrinking, AI has ruined Google, everything is content and none of it makes you feel anything.

—Sian Cain

… tech guys are facing the same economic enshittification that the rest of the world has for the past decade.

—@0xbebis_, on X, formerly Twitter

Word History

Etymology

en- entry 1 + shit entry 1 + -ification

Note: The word was introduced by the Canadian-British writer Cory Doctorow (born 1971) in a blog post of November, 2022, and subsequently in the January, 2023 issue of the magazine Locus.

First Known Use

2013, in the meaning defined above