If you’ve found yourself thinking that your go-to apps, sites, or streaming services aren’t as useful—or fun—as they once were, you’re not hallucinating. Excessively cluttered search results, relentless paywalls, and features hidden behind paywall levels are pissing off more users than ever. And it turns out that there’s even a term for this phenomenon: enshittification.
The phrase was invented by technology activist and author Cory Doctorow to describe the gradual but inexorable death of tech platforms. As he states:
“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.”
It’s a mean cycle—but one that’s becoming all too common. Products that once seemed new, uncomplicated, and easy to use now seem determined to get every last drop of value out of customers before exhausting themselves.
How We Got Here
Take WeWork, for instance. The co-working giant once promised to change the face of work. It raised billions of dollars, globe-straddled, and attracted a wave of money and attention. But, as Hargreaves Lansdown’s Susannah Streeter pointed out, “It didn’t have a clear path to profitability. It never made any money.” When the cold light of reality caught up, WeWork imploded, leaving disillusioned investors and closed-down offices.
And WeWork isn’t alone. Across the tech industry, we’ve seen the same pattern: companies chasing aggressive growth and disruption, only to flame out when the business model fails to deliver. Uber is a classic example. After spending billions to undercut taxis and public transit, it scaled back once it dominated the market. The result? Riders are left with fewer options, and gig workers with less stability.
As Doctorow points out, “What does happen in that time is both labor and capital are radically transformed.” That is, the harm doesn’t only extend to investors—real people attempting to earn a living or merely travel are affected.
Streaming’s Broken Promise
Streaming services took the same course. Netflix started as a breath of fresh air: affordable, nimble, and rife with content. But as TV producer and Writers Guild of America board member Adam Conover framed it: “The whole promise was a lie.”
Journalists had their compensation cut, programs became more ephemeral, and the landscape became cluttered with infinite services. Today, with expansion slowing, platforms are inserting commercials and packaging choices—ironically replicating the cable packages so many users were attempting to get away from initially.
Cheap Money Fueled the Fire
One big reason all of this happened? Ultra-low interest rates. For years, investors had easy access to cheap money and were willing to pour it into startups with little or no path to profitability. “All this was colliding with the fact that… we’ve been in an era of ultra-cheap money that needed a place to land,” Streeter explained.
Now, with interest rates on the rise, that period is ending. And it’s bringing reckoning to the entire tech industry.
From “Founder Mode” to “Customer Mode”
So, what now?
Ed Zitron, CEO of EZPR and host of the Better Offline podcast, thinks it’s time to move beyond “founder mode”—the fixating on growth for the sake of growth—and toward what he refers to as “customer mode.”
As he discussed on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, “customer mode” is creating services that put users first, not advertisers, not investors. It’s about creating enduring products, staying quality-focused, and avoiding the temptation to expand too quickly, too soon.
For start-ups and veterans, this shift may break the cycle of growth, exploitation, and collapse. It’s an offer to rethink what success is—no longer just in terms of dollars raised or markets shaken, but in value returned to real people.
Rebuilding Trust
There’s no avoiding the backlash of a decade of tech excess. Office space lies empty, gig workers are more and more insecure, and users feel like they’re navigating a digital minefield. But if the industry can re-focus on long-term value and user experience, there’s a real chance to re-win trust—and build tools that serve, not exploit.
The future generation of innovation does not necessarily mean chasing unicorns. It means doing something better for everyone.
