恩希特化時代 (The Age of Enshittification) Enshittification, also known as crapification and platform decay, 劣質化（Enshittification），又稱垃圾化和平台衰敗，是指雙邊線上產品和服務品質隨時間推移而下降的一種模式

Infinite Scroll The Age of Enshittification In a new book, the technology critic Cory Doctorow expands on a coinage that has become bleakly relevant, in Silicon Valley and beyond. By Kyle Chayka

恩希特化時代

在一本新書中，科技評論家科利·多克托羅詳細闡述了一個在矽谷及其他地區都變得極為重要的新詞。

劣質化（Enshittification），又稱垃圾化和平台衰敗，是指雙邊線上產品和服務品質隨時間推移而下降的一種模式。最初，供應商會打造高品質的產品來吸引用戶，然後為了更好地服務企業客戶（例如廣告商）而降低產品質量，最終為了股東利潤最大化而降低對用戶和企業客戶的服務品質。

加拿大作家科里·多克托羅（Cory Doctorow）於2022年11月創造了「劣質化」（enshittification）這個新詞，[1]儘管他並非第一個描述和定義這個概念的人。 [2][3] 多克托羅的這個術語已被廣泛採用。美國方言學會將其選為2023年度詞彙，澳洲的麥考瑞字典也將其選為2024年度詞彙。韋氏字典和Dictionary.com網站也將「劣質化」列為詞彙。 [4][5]

多克托羅主張透過兩種方式減少「Enshittification」現象：堅持端到端原則，即平台應根據用戶請求而非演算法驅動的決策傳輸資料；保障退出權，即允許用戶在不丟失資料的情況下離開平台，這需要互通性。這些措施旨在維護線上平台的標準和可信度，強調用戶滿意度，並鼓勵市場競爭。

歷史與定義

科里·多克托羅在2022年的一篇部落格文章中推廣了“Enshittification”一詞。

“阻止互聯網Enshittification的大膽計劃”，科里·多克托羅在2023年DEF CON 31上的演講。

在2010年代末和2020年代初，帶有-fication後綴的粗俗術語偶爾被使用，包括指涉效能下降的軟體系統。 《赤裸資本主義》（Naked Capitalism）雜誌2018年的一篇文章提到了波音公司軟體的「垃圾化」（crapification），[6][7] 溫蒂·A·沃洛森（Wendy A. Woloson）用「垃圾化」（encrappification）來描述美國經濟史上廉價商品的氾濫。 [8][9] 然而，科里·多克托羅（Cory Doctorow）是第一個明確使用「垃圾化」（enshittification）來描述服務品質下降並正式定義其含義的人，他在2022年11月的一篇部落格文章[10]中寫道，該文章三個月後在《Locus》雜誌上轉載。 [11] 他在另一篇部落格文章[12]中詳細闡述了這個概念，該文章轉載於2023年1月的《連線》（Wired）雜誌[13]：

平台的消亡過程如下：首先，它們對用戶好；然後，它們為了更好地服務商業客戶而虐待用戶；最後，它們虐待這些商業客戶，為自己收回所有價值。然後，它們消亡了。我把這稱為“enshittification”，這似乎是不可避免的結果，因為平台分配價值的方式很容易改變，再加上“雙邊市場”的性質，平台介於買家和賣家之間，互相挾持，從他們之間傳遞的價值中抽取越來越大的份額。

Enshittification, also known as crapification and platform decay, is a pattern in which two-sided online products and services decline in quality over time. Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers (such as advertisers), and finally degrade their services to users and business customers to maximize profits for shareholders.

Canadian writer Cory Doctorow coined the neologism enshittification in November 2022,^[1] though he was not the first to describe and label the concept.^[2][3] Doctorow's term has been widely adopted. The American Dialect Society selected it as its 2023 Word of the Year, with Australia's Macquarie Dictionary following suit for 2024. Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com also list enshittification as a word.^[4][5]

Doctorow advocates for two ways to reduce enshittification: upholding the end-to-end principle, which asserts that platforms should transmit data in response to user requests rather than algorithm-driven decisions; and guaranteeing the right of exit—that is, enabling a user to leave a platform without data loss, which requires interoperability. These moves aim to uphold the standards and trustworthiness of online platforms, emphasize user satisfaction, and encourage market competition.

History and definition

Cory Doctorow popularized the term "enshittification" in a 2022 blog post

"An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet's Enshittification", a talk by Cory Doctorow at DEF CON 31 in 2023

The use of scatological terminology with a -fication suffix was in occasional use in the late 2010s and early 2020s, including with reference to degrading software systems. A 2018 Naked Capitalism post referred to the "crapification" of software used by Boeing,^[6][7] and Wendy A. Woloson used the term "encrappification" to describe the proliferation of cheap goods in American economic history.^[8][9] However, Cory Doctorow was the first specifically to use enshittification as a descriptor of service degradation and to formalize its meaning, in a November 2022 blog post^[10] that was republished three months later in Locus.^[11] He expanded on the concept in another blog post^[12] that was republished in the January 2023 edition of Wired:^[13]

Here is how platforms die: 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. I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two-sided market", where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.