Unraveling the Decline of the Internet's Quality
A buzzword that has been swirling around the internet for a while now is "enshittification." This term was introduced by an established internet activist and journalist who uses it to illustrate the deteriorating evolution of internet platforms. This concept is also the focal point of his latest book.
The term "enshittification" paints a picture of companies that were once top-tier now turning into subpar entities. This theory is specifically applied to popular internet platforms and their perceived decline in quality and user experience.
Understanding the Phases of Enshittification
The author suggests that these platforms go through an identifiable pattern of operation. Essentially, the companies that run these platforms act as intermediaries, connecting users with businesses looking to profit from them.
Stage 1: The Hook
In the initial stage, these platforms are fresh and eager to attract users. They are filled with investor cash and face minimal pressure from shareholders for immediate profits. The primary objective in this stage is to persuade people to sign up, promising a superior user experience.
A classic example of this is seen when Facebook in its early days assured users they wouldn't be subjected to surveillance and data harvesting. Users were fed content they wanted to see, not what businesses paid to display. Similarly, companies like Amazon and Uber provided consumers with fantastic deals during their initial stage.
Stage 2: Attracting Business Customers
Once these platforms have gained traction and locked in a significant user base, they move on to stage 2. Here, they focus on luring business customers to their platform by offering them attractive benefits, often at the cost of user experience.
Businesses loved the precision with which Facebook targeted users with ads. Publishers were encouraged to publish short excerpts of their articles, which the platform then pushed onto users, increasing traffic for publishers. Similarly, Amazon provided a great deal for its business customers, selling their goods at a cost lower than what they paid for them.
Stage 3: The Downfall Begins
Stage 3 marks the beginning of decline. Platforms start squeezing money out of business customers. Facebook, for example, began charging advertisers more for ad services while simultaneously reducing the quality of ad targeting. They also started forcing publishers to publish longer excerpts of their articles to appear in user feeds and charging them to boost their content.
The author asserts that Amazon also started exploiting its data on merchants' sales to replicate their products. He suggests that they manipulated their search algorithm to benefit themselves and started charging merchants junk fees.
The result of these actions is a poor user experience and an increase in product prices. The author argues that this stage is when the platforms truly turn into a pile of "crap."
The Underlying Causes of Enshittification
According to the author, the primary reasons for the downfall of internet platforms are lack of competition and the absence of suitable pro-consumer regulations. These platforms can afford to treat their users and business customers poorly because they have no fear of losing them to competitors or being penalized by the government.
The author advocates for more robust antitrust enforcement and the abandonment of the "consumer welfare standard" to increase competition. This standard, adopted by the courts in the late 20th century, judges companies based on whether they are causing measurable harm to consumers, typically through higher prices, rather than their size or power.
Proposed Solutions to the Problem
The author proposes several resolutions to this issue. One of them is making it easier for users to leave platforms. He suggests passing regulations that would allow users to take their purchased items with them, such as e-books from Amazon's Kindle.
Another solution is promoting "interoperability," a concept that allows products or services to work with other products or services. For example, allowing any competitor to make ink cartridges that are compatible with a given printer instead of the printer manufacturers forcing users to use only their expensive cartridges.
Currently, many tech products and services are not interoperable. iPhones won't run Android apps, and users on one social media platform can't directly message their contacts on another. The author argues that these are artificial barriers created by companies to maintain their market power.
While the author acknowledges that advocating for these changes may seem like an uphill battle, he points out that the anti-tech monopoly movement has gained momentum in recent years. He believes that popular policy solutions can reverse the declining quality of the internet.