Enshittification Book Review: What Doctorow Gets Right Here

Cory Doctorow writes that an Amazon seller loses 45 to 51 cents of every dollar earned on the platform to fees, and that the best match in an Amazon search sits an average of seventeen places down the page.

Amazon told NPR that the book's entire theory about Amazon is incorrect. That gap between a sharp claim and a flat denial is the best place to start any Enshittification book review.

Published in October 2025, 'Enshittification' expands on a concept the author introduced a few years earlier. Cory Doctorow coined 'enshittification' in 2022, and the American Dialect Society named 'enshittification' Word of the Year in 2023.

The term struck a nerve because it gave a name to a shared frustration: the feeling that the internet used to serve us, but now we serve it. This article examines Doctorow's diagnosis of how platforms decay, the evidence he uses to back his claims, and the practical fixes he suggests to build a good internet again.

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Quick summary: What the Enshittification book argues

• Platforms start generous to users, then squeeze users, then squeeze business customers.

• Doctorow says decay follows specific policy choices, not economic fate.

• Amazon, Facebook, and Google are the main examples of this shift.

• Fixes include antitrust, right to repair, and platform interoperability.

• The book is strongest on its diagnosis and thinner on its practical cures.

How platforms decay: The three stages and the end state

Doctorow argues that digital platforms undergo a predictable four-stage decay cycle, though his framework actually outlines three active stages of decline before reaching a final, dead state.

The first stage of enshittification is being generous to users. Tech companies run at a massive loss to attract a huge audience, subsidizing costs so users rely heavily on the platform. Think of how cheap it was to ride an Uber in its early days, or how clean and useful early search engines felt.

The second stage involves exploiting users for the benefit of business customers. Once users are locked in, the platform changes the rules. It fills feeds with ads, sells user data, and makes the core service worse to please the advertisers paying the bills.

If you want to understand the engagement metrics driving this specific phase, reading a Stolen Focus review helps explain how platforms actively hijack human attention.

The third stage occurs when the platform abuses those business customers to claw back value for shareholders. Advertisers suddenly pay higher prices for worse placement. Publishers are squeezed. The platform extracts every possible bit of value to inflate its stock price.

The final stage results in a rotting service that traps users. Enshittification leads to platforms becoming 'piles of shit'. The platform is practically dead, but users and businesses cannot leave because the cost to switch is too high.

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The evidence Doctorow uses: Amazon, Facebook, and Google

Doctorow relies on major tech giants to demonstrate how this pattern plays out in real life.

When discussing retail, he points squarely at Amazon. Crucially, he claims Amazon's fees take 45 to 51 cents of every dollar earned by third-party sellers. He also states that Amazon charges $38 billion annually for search placement, meaning buyers rarely see the best product first — they see the product that paid the most.

As noted earlier, Amazon explicitly rejects these figures and the entire premise, creating a contentious debate around the data.

For social media, Facebook transformed from user-friendly to profit-extracting. Doctorow traces its history from a simple way to connect with a person you met in college to a feed choked with promoted material and bots.

He highlights the financial fragility of this model, noting that in 2022, Facebook lost $250 billion in one day, a historic drop in market value that revealed the limits of endless growth. For a deeper look at how social feeds manipulate users into staying logged in, our Dopamine Nation review outlines the exact dopamine loops platforms exploit.

Google search results and Twitter also make appearances. Doctorow uses these platforms to show that the decline in online service quality affects public discourse and social trust.

When you search for basic instructions or try to buy ebooks on your iPhone, the results are heavily skewed toward advertisers. Digital platforms often prioritize advertising revenue over user experience, turning valuable tools into frustrating hurdles.

Why it happens: Lock-in, weak antitrust, and policy choices

The book emphasizes that this decay is not an accident of capitalism. It is a deliberate strategy. The term enshittification emphasizes that platform decay is the result of policy choices.

The engine driving this process is lock-in. Lock-in occurs when users face high switching costs and cannot easily leave a platform. If all your friends are on a network, or your business relies entirely on a specific marketplace, leaving feels impossible. Platforms that successfully lock in users can extract more value without significant competition.

Weak antitrust enforcement has led to monopolistic behavior in tech industries. Because firms face no real threat of being broken up or penalized, they are free to degrade their services.

If you enjoy reading strategic breakdowns, exploring The Art of War review shows how maintaining absolute leverage over an opponent — or in this case, a consumer — is a timeless tactic.

Furthermore, surveillance capitalism fuels the enshittification process by providing companies with more data to manipulate users, ensuring they stay trapped in the ecosystem.

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The fixes the book proposes

Doctorow does not just describe the problem; he offers a specific cure. He argues that reversing this trend requires aggressive regulation.

First, reviving antitrust enforcement can combat enshittification. By breaking up monopolies, governments can force companies to compete on quality again. He points to the EU's Digital Markets Act, which aims to regulate platform behavior, as a blueprint for how society can push back.

Second, restoring the right to repair is essential for combating enshittification. When manufacturers stop blocking independent repairs, consumers gain leverage.

Additionally, user self-help through interoperability can mitigate enshittification effects. If you could easily port your social network followers from one app to a competitor, the cost to switch drops to zero. Breaking personal reliance on bad tools requires the kind of behavioral shift outlined in the Atomic Habits review, but at a systemic level.

Finally, strengthening labor rights can help reverse enshittification. Tech workers themselves hold immense power, and when they are empowered to refuse unethical design requests, the platforms cannot easily deploy hostile features against their users.

What the book does well, and where it falls short

The Enshittification book succeeds because it takes a complex, academic concept and gives it a highly memorable name. Doctorow captures the exact sense of frustration readers feel when their favorite apps turn hostile.

The diagnosis is incredibly sharp, providing the bare minimum needed to help a general audience understand why their digital life suddenly got worse.

However, some critics note that the book falls short in its remedies. While Doctorow is highly committed to his policy proposals, many readers find the first chapters a bit thin. Implementing widespread antitrust action and interoperability standards requires immense political will, making the solutions feel distant.

Additionally, some of the specific financial details and fees claimed in the text are hotly contested by the platforms themselves, requiring readers to verify the figures independently.

Who should read the Enshittification book?

If you remember a time when the internet felt useful rather than exhausting, this book will validate your frustration. It is highly recommended for tech workers, managers, and policymakers who want to understand the structural forces ruining digital marketplaces.

However, if you already follow Doctorow's blog or read his essays, you might find the material repetitive. The core pattern remains the same, just expanded with more historical context.

For readers looking for a more forward-focused look at how AI might shape the next wave of platforms, pairing this with a Co-Intelligence review provides a great counter-perspective on where technology is heading next.

Take the ideas further with Headway!

Understanding how technology shapes society requires consistent reading. Headway offers hundreds of 15-minute text and audio summaries covering the exact systems of power Doctorow critiques.

You can explore summaries of 'Sapiens' to understand how massive human networks form and maintain power, or dive into top technology and psychology books to learn how to protect your own attention from hostile algorithms. Instead of feeding bad platforms your time, you can invest it in your own growth.

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