Let’s begin with a definition. Here is how Cory Doctorow refers to the ‘enshittification’ of web platforms — including Amazon, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others: “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.
” –Lads to the demise of the platform, as suggested by Doctorow, remains a point petroleum manufacturers email lists of discussion. With recent and visible exceptions such as Facebook or X/Twitter, which many argue have entered a state of diminished utility. Look at Amazon. Initially operating at a loss, Amazon offered goods and services below cost, gradually expanding into a comprehensive marketplace.
Over time, the platform underwent a fundamental shift, with search results influenced by paid placements, altering the user experience and raising questions about the platform’s original promise of being the “everything store.” Same with Musk’s X/Twitter, Inc., today a terminally ill platform, a terrible place to be whether you’re a user, a media company, or an advertiser. Read also: Is This the End of Twitter? What Marketers Should Know About Elon Musk’s Rebranding of Twitter as X This has significant implications for B2B marketers, as highlighted in Rand Fishkin‘s discussion with Justyna Brownbridge; Rand notes the tendency of advertising platforms to claim credit for organic outcomes, de facto distorting the perceived effectiveness of paid efforts.