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Enshittification: The decline of digital service quality
The term ‘Enshittification,’ coined by Canadian-British author and journalist Cory Doctorow, describes the phenomenon where digital services—ranging from social media to streaming platforms—gradually decline in quality.
According to Christine Steffen of the Verbraucherzentrale Nordrhein-Westfalen, this process often begins with a service providing high utility, frequently at no cost to attract users. Once a user base is established, providers may seek to maximize commercial exploitation. This can manifest as increasing subscription prices, cluttering interfaces with excessive advertising to push users toward paid tiers, or converting previously free, data-driven services into paid models.
Despite these declines, many users continue to use the services due to high switching costs caused by platform effects, which make moving to competitors difficult.
Entities
Christine Steffen · Cory Doctorow · Verbraucherzentrale Nordrhein-Westfalen
Claims
What the coverage asserts, and how many sources carry each claim.
- [● 3 SOURCES] Providers may increase prices or degrade user experience to increase revenue. www.fehmarn24.de · www.europeonline-magazine.eu · www.op-online.de
- [● 3 SOURCES] Increased advertising in free versions can drive users toward paid, ad-free subscriptions. www.fehmarn24.de · www.europeonline-magazine.eu · www.op-online.de
- [● 3 SOURCES] Digital services often create utility first, sometimes for free, before providers seek to maximize commercial exploitation. www.fehmarn24.de · www.europeonline-magazine.eu · www.op-online.de
- [● 3 SOURCES] Free services may be converted to paid models after users have provided data. www.fehmarn24.de · www.europeonline-magazine.eu · www.op-online.de
- [● 3 SOURCES] Platform effects can make the cost of switching to alternative services too high for users. www.fehmarn24.de · www.europeonline-magazine.eu · www.op-online.de
- [● 3 SOURCES] Cory Doctorow coined the term ‘Enshittification’ to describe the gradual decline of digital services. www.fehmarn24.de · www.europeonline-magazine.eu · www.op-online.de