Broken promises

Once the default Q&A layer for programmers; the community-built corpus now mostly feeds AI tools, and new questions have all but stopped.

The canonical enshittification case: a feed that once showed your friends now serves ads, recommended posts, and AI content to an ageing, shrinking audience.

Once best-in-class retrieval; now cluttered with SERP features, ads, and SEO sludge—users get the residual junk.

API paywalls, algorithmic feeds, verification products, and ad load shift surplus toward the operator and advertisers—classic extraction on a still-central public square.

Fan wikis written by volunteers, wrapped in heavy ads, and big communities are leaving for independent hosts.

Connected bikes and classes behind a subscription, with a fee for used equipment, a price rise, and a shrinking member base.

Two-sided travel marketplace: guest fees, host policies, and algorithmic ranking shift surplus toward the platform as inventory professionalizes.

Dominant marketplace: Prime lock-in, ad load in search results, and third-party seller fees show clear tilt toward extraction.

Flagship consumer LLM: free tier competes for attention; Plus, Team, and API convert habit into recurring revenue.

Anthropic’s assistant: funded by subscriptions, not ads—but weekly usage caps and default training on chats count against it.

Launched cheap with a deep back catalog; now on a yearly cycle of price rises, ad tiers, paid sharing, and bundle upsells.

Food delivery marketplace with fees stacked on restaurants and riders; convenience for diners, thin margins and policy fights everywhere else.

Mature marketplace leaning on promoted listings, managed payments, and seller standards that favour scale over hobbyists.

Free email with powerful search, paid behind Workspace; ads and AI features tie identity to Google’s broader stack.

Dominant Chromium default—fast and compatible, tightly coupled to Google accounts, sync, and the ads ecosystem that funds the web’s biggest funnel.

Niche network with Xtra/Unlimited paywalls, ad load, and privacy history that undermines user trust.

Photo sharing turned short-video storefront: Reels, ads, and shopping crowd out the people you follow, while Meta's AI and ad systems mine every interaction.

US rideshare duopoly player; take rates, incentives, and driver dynamics mirror Uber’s two-sided squeeze with regional variation.

Still a capable player, but ad tiers, password-policy tightening, and recurring price moves shift value from subscribers toward ARPU and shareholders.

Mature platform shifting value toward advertisers, mods as unpaid labor, and product changes that prioritize engagement over quality.

Default music app for many—great discovery and library UX; economics squeeze artists while pushing podcasts, ads, and tier upsells.

Two-sided marketplace that captures a large slice from riders and drivers; convenience for users exists, but the economic surplus flows to the platform and investors.

Default chat for much of the world; phone-number identity and network effects make leaving socially costly, while Meta monetizes the ecosystem around it.

Unmatched library and creator economy, but ad load, Shorts push, and policy swings steadily tilt the experience toward Google’s revenue priorities.

Differentiated dating brand with the same premium tiers, spotlight features, and engagement optimization as peers.

Travel reviews losing their search traffic to AI answers, with an activist investor pushing for a sale.