Enshittification - The Daily Show

Cory Doctorow on The Daily Show recently describing enshittification ↗.

Excellent elevator pitch version of what it means and why it happens.

Enshittification describes the predictable lifecycle of digital platforms: they start by delivering strong value to users to drive adoption, then shift to prioritizing business customers and advertisers at the users’ expense, and ultimately optimize for extraction and profit for the platform itself, degrading the experience for everyone else. The result is a hollowed-out product where usability, trust, and long-term value are sacrificed in favor of short-term financial gains, often leaving users and partners locked in with few viable alternatives.