"Enshittification" as a framework: where it comes from and what it claims

A note on the source up front: "enshittification" is an essay framework, not a peer-reviewed research finding. It deserves to be cited honestly.

The term was coined by writer and digital-rights advocate Cory Doctorow in 2023 essays published on his blog and in journalism outlets, with a later book-length treatment in The Internet Con (Verso, 2023). The framework proposes a three-stage lifecycle for two-sided platforms: useful to users, then useful to business customers, then useful only to shareholders.

Doctorow: "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." — Doctorow, C. (2023). "Tiktok's Enshittification." Pluralistic (essay), January 21, 2023.

The framework is not peer-reviewed but draws on a well-established academic literature. Hirschman's classic Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (Harvard University Press, 1970) provides the theoretical foundation: when consumers cannot easily exit (because of lock-in, switching costs, or network effects), the discipline that normally constrains a service to remain useful is weakened.

The two-sided market economics literature — Rochet & Tirole's Journal of the European Economic Association paper being the canonical source — formalizes how platforms balance interests between users and other constituents:

Rochet & Tirole: "Two-sided markets are roughly defined as markets in which one or several platforms enable interactions between end-users, and try to get the two (or multiple) sides on board by appropriately charging each side." — Rochet, J.-C., & Tirole, J. (2003). "Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets." Journal of the European Economic Association, 1(4), 990–1029.

For the subscription consumer, the practical reading: lock-in mechanisms (account state, watch history, sunk cost) reduce exit pressure. The longer the tenure, the more the service's incentives shift from retaining you through value to retaining you through friction.

References

• Doctorow, C. (2023). The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation. Verso Books.
• Hirschman, A. O. (1970). Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Harvard University Press.
• Rochet, J.-C., & Tirole, J. (2003). Journal of the European Economic Association, 1(4), 990–1029.

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