CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE: Enshittification Comes to 'Smart' Products

Companies that exploit digital control of their products to extract additional value risk degrading customers' experiences and sense of ownership.

- By Andrew Park, David R. Hannah, Jan Kietzmann, and Leyland Pitt

When technology journalist Cory Doctorow coined a new term to describe how the consumer experience on platforms such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google has degraded over time, his observations resonated so widely that the American Dialect Society named enshittification its word of the year in 2023.

Doctorow argued that platform operators follow a predictable pattern: At the outset, they create a compelling user experience to build an installed base and establish high switching costs. Next, they exploit those users in order to gain revenue for their business customers, such as by prioritizing ads and paid content rather than what is most relevant to the user. Finally, when users and business customers are locked in, platforms squeeze both sides to maximize their own profits, and everyone’s experience worsens.

While Doctorow focused his ire on platforms, we see similar dynamics at play in traditional industries, where making physical products “smart” by adding digital capabilities has paved the way for manufacturers to similarly lock in and squeeze customers. We contend that building internet connectivity, sensors, firmware, software, and data analytics into physical products has enabled digital business models that unlock new revenue streams — and, too often, lead businesses down a new pathway to enshittification.

Andrew Park is an assistant professor of information systems at the University of Victoria's Gustavson School of Business. David R. Hannah is the SFU Beedie Professor in Business at Simon Fraser University. Jan Kietzmann is an innovation and information systems professor at the Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria and at EGADE Business School, Tecnológico de Monterrey. Leyland Pitt is a professor of marketing and the Dennis F. Culver EMBA Alumni Chair of Business at the Beedie School of Business.

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