The Internet is Worse Than Ever

The Concept of Enshittification
📌 The term "enshittification," coined by Cory Doctorow, describes the process where platforms or services degrade over time, essentially meaning "you are getting ripped off."
📉 The concept divides company evolution into three distinct phases, impacting user experience and personal finances.
💸 Understanding these phases is crucial for safeguarding personal finances against strategic corporate changes.

Phase 1: The Bait (Customer Acquisition)
🎣 This initial phase focuses on acquiring users as fast as possible, often by burning cash and offering significant incentives like 50% off or free products/services.
🍔 Examples include massive discounts on food delivery or free items, which lure customers in, making them overlook the true cost structure.
🤔 Three main problems arise: excessive ordering due to perceived "free" value, hidden costs masked by free offers (e.g., needing to buy a second ticket), and the convenience factor locking users in.
📝 Actionable Checklist: Before buying, assess if you truly need the item, if the purchase will become an unaffordable habit, and imagine the price if the discount disappeared.

Phase 2: The Track (Lock-in and Degradation)
🔒 Once user habits are established and switching costs become high (due to saved data, established workflows, or emotional ties), platforms begin to degrade service quality without users leaving.
🔎 Google search results are cited as an example, where the platform favors its own pages, leading to more ads and potentially 17% more expensive products being shown at the top of search results on marketplaces like Amazon.
⚖️ Switching costs are non-monetary, involving search costs, learning costs, and emotional barriers that keep users locked into the current platform's comfort zone.
💡 To combat degradation, use tools like comparison extensions for items, hotels, or flights to ensure you are always getting the best deal despite platform manipulation.

Phase 3: The Squeeze (Profit Maximization)
💰 This phase begins when companies prioritize profitability (post-growth goals), leading to direct methods of extracting more money from locked-in users.
⏫ This involves rent-seeking behavior, such as suddenly increasing prices (like Google for Business) while maintaining the same service value because users are trapped.
💸 Another technique is drip pricing, where a single delivery charge is broken down into multiple small, normalized fees, resulting in a final checkout price significantly higher than initially promised.
📊 In a true capitalist economy, product quality drives customer choice, forcing providers to offer the highest quality at the lowest price; however, enshittification involves controlling the platform to limit choice, creating false choices for the consumer.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ The core strategy of early-stage companies is to "burn cash" to rapidly gain market share through massive discounts, relying on the Power Law where one big winner covers nine losses for VCs.
➡️ Be wary of free digital incentives; they often lead to spending more overall, such as needing to purchase a second item when one ticket is offered for free.
➡️ Recognize when a service enters Phase 3 by looking for price hikes without added value, indicating the company is engaging in rent-seeking behavior due to user lock-in.
➡️ Your main defense against platform degradation is to identify false choices presented on controlled marketplaces and actively seek out your genuine alternatives.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Feb 23, 2026, 09:26 UTC