How the pattern repeats across every platform, every industry, every era.
Amazon: From Everything Store to Everything Toll Booth
Stage 1: Be Nice to Users
Amazon began as a genuine innovation: an online bookstore that offered lower prices, wider selection, and the convenience of shopping from home. Jeff Bezos famously left Wall Street to pursue a vision where customers would be the center of everything.
Prime membership was a steal—free two-day shipping for a flat annual fee. Amazon absorbed the costs because acquiring loyal users was the priority. Reviews were genuine. Prices were transparent. The experience was magical.
Stage 2: Be Nice to Sellers
Once customers were locked in through Prime and habit, Amazon shifted to extracting value from sellers. Third-party marketplace sellers became dependent on Amazon for traffic, and Amazon exploited this dependency ruthlessly:
- Search results became pay-to-play: Sponsored products dominate the first page, pushing organic results below the fold.
- FBA mandatory: Sellers who don’t use Fulfillment by Amazon face worse placement and slower shipping, effectively forcing them to pay Amazon for warehousing and shipping.
- Copycat products: Amazon uses seller data to identify profitable products, then creates Amazon Basics versions that receive preferential placement.
- Rising fees: Referral fees, fulfillment fees, advertising fees—all increase year after year, squeezing seller margins.
Stage 3: Squeeze Everyone
With both customers and sellers locked in, Amazon squeezes both:
- Counterfeit goods flood the platform, undermining trust
- Search is enshittified: Finding what you actually want requires scrolling past pages of sponsored results and algorithmically promoted products
- Prime Video is stuffed with ads despite users paying for ad-free streaming
- Dynamic pricing means the price you see depends on your browsing history and perceived willingness to pay
The result: an “everything store” where finding genuine products requires increasingly sophisticated workarounds, and both buyers and sellers pay tribute to the platform that was supposed to serve them.
Facebook: From Social Connection to Social Extraction
Stage 1: Be Nice to Users
Facebook’s original promise was radical: connect with your friends, share your life, discover communities. The news feed showed you what your friends actually posted. Groups were organic. Events were discoverable. It felt like a digital town square.
Stage 2: Be Nice to Advertisers
Once users were locked in through social ties—leaving meant losing connection to friends and family—Facebook systematically degraded the user experience to serve advertisers:
- Algorithmic feed: Posts from friends were replaced by content that maximized “engagement”—which meant outrage, fear, and division
- Organic reach killed: Pages that once reached their followers for free now had to pay to be seen. A business with 100,000 followers might reach 2% without advertising
- Data harvesting: Every click, like, and message became grist for the advertising mill. Facebook built shadow profiles even on non-users
- Cambridge Analytica: The moment when the scope of data exploitation became undeniable—but changed nothing about Facebook’s fundamental model
Stage 3: Squeeze Everyone
With users and advertisers both dependent, Facebook (now Meta) squeezes both:
- Ad costs rise while effectiveness declines—advertisers pay more for less
- Users see more ads, less content from people they actually care about
- Metaverse pivot: Billions spent on a virtual world nobody asked for, while the core platform deteriorates
- Reels and short video: Algorithmically pushed to compete with TikTok, further degrading the social experience
The platform that was supposed to connect us now divides us, monitors us, and sells access to our attention—while making it increasingly difficult to leave because all our social connections are held hostage.
Google: From Organizing Information to Obscuring It
Stage 1: Be Nice to Users
Google’s original promise was simple and revolutionary: organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible. The homepage was clean—a single search box. Results were ranked by relevance. “Don’t be evil” wasn’t just a slogan; it was a design principle.
Stage 2: Be Nice to Advertisers
Once users were locked in through habit and default settings, Google began prioritizing advertising revenue over search quality:
- Ads above the fold: The first several results are advertisements, visually designed to look like organic results
- SEO spam: Google’s algorithm changes created an entire industry of content designed to game search rankings, filling results with low-quality content
- Featured snippets: Google extracts content from websites and displays it directly, reducing the need for users to click through—denying creators traffic while using their work
- Shopping results: Commercial queries now return a wall of paid placements, making genuine comparison shopping nearly impossible
Stage 3: Squeeze Everyone
With users habituated and advertisers dependent, Google squeezes both:
- AI summaries: Google now generates AI overviews that synthesize information from across the web, further reducing clicks to original sources
- Declining search quality: Users report increasing difficulty finding genuine information amid ads, SEO content, and AI-generated filler
- Chrome dominance: Browser market share used to lock users into Google’s ecosystem, making switching to alternatives increasingly difficult
- Android control: Phone manufacturers who want Google Play must pre-install Google’s suite of apps and make Google the default search engine
The company that once organized the world’s information now obscures it behind layers of advertising and algorithmic manipulation.
Twitter/X: From Public Square to Pay-to-Play
Stage 1: Be Nice to Users
Twitter was the global town square—a place where anyone could speak, be heard, and discover what was happening in real time. Revolutionaries used it. Journalists relied on it. Communities formed around it.
Stage 2: Be Nice to Advertisers
Even before Elon Musk, Twitter was enshittifying:
- Algorithmic timeline: Replaced chronological feed with engagement-maximizing algorithm
- Promoted tweets: Paid content inserted into user feeds
- Data licensing: Selling access to the firehose of user data
Stage 3: Squeeze Everyone
Under Musk, enshittification accelerated dramatically:
- Verification monetized: The blue checkmark—once a mark of authenticity—became an $8/month subscription, flooding the platform with paid impersonators
- API access destroyed: Third-party apps that made Twitter usable were priced out of existence
- Algorithmic favoritism: Paid users receive algorithmic boost, making organic reach nearly impossible
- Content moderation gutted: Hate speech and misinformation proliferated, driving away both users and advertisers
- X Premium: Multiple tiers of paid features, each extracting more value from users who just want the basic functionality that used to be free
The platform that once gave everyone a voice now amplifies only those willing to pay for it.
Uber: From Disruption to Extraction
Stage 1: Be Nice to Users
Uber’s pitch was irresistible: tap a button, get a ride. Cheaper than taxis, more convenient than public transit, with polite drivers and clean cars. Uber subsidized every ride, losing billions to acquire users and drivers alike.
Stage 2: Be Nice to Advertisers (and Drivers)
Once users and drivers were locked in through habit and economic dependence, Uber shifted:
- Driver pay cut: Surge pricing increased rider costs while driver compensation decreased
- Algorithmic management: Drivers are managed by opaque algorithms that don’t recognize labor protections
- Pool/Share rides: More passengers per ride, same or higher cost to riders, less pay per ride for drivers
Stage 3: Squeeze Everyone
With limited competition and regulatory capture, Uber squeezes both sides:
- Dynamic pricing: “Surge pricing” that can multiply fares by 3x or more during peak demand
- Driver exploitation: Below-minimum-wage pay after expenses, no benefits, algorithmic termination without explanation
- Regulatory capture: Lobbying to classify drivers as independent contractors, avoiding labor protections
- Enshittification of service: Longer wait times, dirtier cars, drivers who don’t know the city—all while prices rise
The “disruption” that was supposed to improve transportation has made it more expensive and less reliable—while the workers who provide the service earn less than minimum wage.
Apple: From Think Different to Think Locked In
Stage 1: Be Nice to Users
Apple’s products were genuinely superior: intuitive interfaces, beautiful design, seamless integration. “Think Different” wasn’t just marketing—it was a philosophy that attracted creative professionals and everyday users alike.
Stage 2: Lock In Users
Once users invested in the Apple ecosystem, leaving became prohibitively expensive:
- iMessage lock-in: Green bubbles stigmatize Android users, creating social pressure to stay on iPhone
- App Store monopoly: Developers must use Apple’s payment system and pay 30% commission—a tax passed on to users
- Proprietary connectors: Lightning, then USB-C with MFi chips that prevent third-party accessories from working properly
- Repair restrictions: Making self-repair difficult and expensive, pushing users toward expensive Apple service
Stage 3: Squeeze Everyone
With users locked in and developers dependent, Apple squeezes both:
- Subscription everything: Features that used to be one-time purchases become monthly subscriptions (Apple Music, Apple TV+, iCloud, Apple Arcade, Apple News+…)
- Right-to-repair opposition: Fighting legislation that would give users the right to fix their own devices
- App Tracking Transparency: Positioned as privacy protection, but functionally weakens advertising competitors while strengthening Apple’s own targeting capabilities
- 30% App Store tax: A commission rate that would be illegal in most industries, sustained only by monopoly power
The company that urged you to “Think Different” now insists you think only within its walls.
Beyond Tech: Enshittification Everywhere
The pattern extends far beyond digital platforms:
Healthcare
- Insurance companies that once covered care now deny claims algorithmically
- Pharmaceutical companies that once cured diseases now extract recurring revenue through patent manipulation
- Hospitals that once served communities now optimize for billing efficiency
Housing
- Landlords who once maintained properties now extract maximum rent for minimum service
- Zoning laws that once protected neighborhoods now prevent new housing, driving prices skyward
- Private equity buying homes to rent them back to the people who should own them
Education
- Universities that once expanded knowledge now function as credential gatekeepers
- Student loan systems that once enabled social mobility now create debt traps
- Textbook publishers who once disseminated knowledge now release annual “editions” to kill the used market
Automobiles
- Mercedes renting you your accelerator pedal by the month
- BMW heated seats as a subscription service
- John Deere tractors that farmers cannot repair themselves
- Internet of Things dishwashers that lock you into proprietary dish soap
The Structural Pattern
Every case follows the same trajectory:
- Acquire users through genuine value, often subsidized by investor capital
- Lock in users through network effects, switching costs, and ecosystem integration
- Exploit users to benefit advertisers or business customers
- Lock in advertisers through dependency on the platform’s reach
- Squeeze everyone to maximize shareholder extraction
- Resist reform through regulatory capture, lobbying, and monopoly power
The pattern is not accidental—it is the logical outcome of platform capitalism operating without meaningful constraints. As Doctorow notes, enshittification 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, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.”
What Can Be Done
Doctorow identifies four forces that once constrained enshittification and could again:
- Competition: When users can leave, platforms must treat them well. Breaking up monopolies and enforcing antitrust law restores this pressure.
- Regulation: When platforms face consequences for abuse, they abuse less. Privacy laws, algorithmic transparency requirements, and platform accountability can limit extraction.
- Self-help: When users can modify, reverse-engineer, or interoperability with platforms, they can resist enshittification. Ad blockers, alternative clients, and data portability are forms of self-help.
- Worker power: When tech workers can push back against enshittification from within, they serve as a countervailing force. Unionization and worker organizing matter.
The solution is not mysterious. It is the same solution that previous generations applied to previous monopolies: enforce competition, regulate abuse, empower users, and support workers.