A side effect of the explosion of ChatGPT and other generative AI products is the sudden realization of how bad the search experience is. To begin with, Google distinguished itself with its clean and simple user interface—at a time when the web was cluttered with pop-up ads. The latter seems to describe the now-typical Google search experience, with a first screen filled with sponsored links, followed by reminders to shop your search query at various stores, and ending with links to advertisements. The clutter and lack of context seems to have extended to other large networks. When Elon Musk shook up Twitter, the site looked like a shadow of its former self, with inappropriate tweets popping up all over the place. The less said about Facebook the better, as Mark Zuckerberg is trying to cram every social product and experience into the app. As Meta tries to make Instagram look like TikTok, loyal users including the Kardashians are campaigning to ‘make Instagram look like Instagram’. The youngsters tell me that even TikTok is losing its appeal, and the mighty Amazon is also overwhelmed with ads as it tries to cope with a slowdown in its ad revenue business.
A side effect of the explosion of ChatGPT and other generative AI products is the sudden realization of how bad the search experience is. To begin with, Google distinguished itself with its clean and simple user interface—at a time when the web was cluttered with pop-up ads. The latter seems to describe the now-typical Google search experience, with a first screen filled with sponsored links, followed by reminders to shop your search query at various stores, and ending with links to advertisements. The clutter and lack of context seems to have extended to other large networks. When Elon Musk shook up Twitter, the site looked like a shadow of its former self, with inappropriate tweets popping up all over the place. The less said about Facebook the better, as Mark Zuckerberg is trying to cram every social product and experience into the app. As Meta tries to make Instagram look like TikTok, loyal users including the Kardashians are campaigning to ‘make Instagram look like Instagram’. The youngsters tell me that even TikTok is losing its appeal, and the mighty Amazon is also overwhelmed with ads as it tries to cope with a slowdown in its ad revenue business.
An FT Article by economist Tim Harford (ed.bit.ly/3JaGRH9) tries to explain this phenomenon through an economic lens. Harford quotes writer and activist Cory Doctov, who explains that all networks eventually degrade and collapse with the catchphrase: ‘enshittification’. Doctor wrote: “This is how platforms die. First, they are nice to their users, then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers, and finally, they complain to those business customers to get all the value back for themselves. .” In the social networking context, they design networks for their end users first: clean interfaces, quick results, good communications. As user growth explodes, they feel pressure from investors to ‘monetize’ these users, and a shift to business customers occurs. Eric Schmitts and Sheryl Sandbergs of Business They take over from the founders and mercilessly go after business customers – both advertisers and sellers on the platform.Eventually, when they become the dominant network, they become equal opportunity attackers of business and users.
An FT Article by economist Tim Harford (ed.bit.ly/3JaGRH9) tries to explain this phenomenon through an economic lens. Harford quotes writer and activist Cory Doctov, who explains that all networks eventually degrade and collapse with the catchphrase: ‘enshittification’. Doctor wrote: “This is how platforms die. First, they are nice to their users, then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers, and finally, they complain to those business customers to get all the value back for themselves. .” In the social networking context, they design networks for their end users first: clean interfaces, quick results, good communications. As user growth explodes, they feel pressure from investors to ‘monetize’ these users, and a shift to business customers occurs. Eric Schmitts and Sheryl Sandbergs of Business They take over the work from the founders and ruthlessly pursue business customers – advertisers or sellers on the platform.Finally, when they become the dominant network, they become equal opportunity attackers of business and users.
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Two main factors underpin successful networks: network effects and switching costs. In the past, people used networks because it was where their friends were. Many of us have tried to wean off WhatsApp to go to Telegram or Signal, but our friends are still on WhatsApp, so we come back. Similarly, all sellers blindly go to Amazon because most of the buyers are there and vice versa. Changing costs imply the difficulty of rebuilding your social graph and preferences. Moving from Twitter to Mastodon or Koo means you need to rebuild your circle of friends. Logging out of Amazon means leaving your e-books locked on that platform. Switch operating systems, say from Android to iOS, or Mac to Windows—and you’ll find the costs and hassle involved in switching.
Docter talks about how these switching costs are “weaponized,” with social networks intentionally creating annoying hoops you have to jump through to avoid them. He explained this in an interesting story entitled ‘Unauthorized Bread’, which only accepted proprietary bread. Bread from Certified Bakers!
These tools lead to the ‘insightification’ we see in networks today. Successful networks support a growing user base and even suppliers while incurring large losses. When they have critical mass, they will return to monetization at the expense of their user experience. Economists propose mutualism as an antidote to this toxic behavior. Ideally, we should be able to send messages from Facebook to Twitter, there should be a way to transport our social graph with us when we move from one social network to another, or we should be able to take our e-books with us when we go out. Amazon.
For a while, Web3’s philosophies represented a light at the end of the tunnel for decentralized gaming, allowing you to take virtual devices (and level proof) with you when you move to another game. While this may sound strange, Harford argues that this works in the real world: coffee shops, restaurants, or local taxis won’t serve you badly because they know you can go elsewhere with your money and your needs. The same thing needs to happen in social networks – before they descend into a rotten monopolistic morass.
Jasprit Bindra is a technology expert, author of ‘Tech Whisper’ and currently pursuing a Masters in AI and Ethics from Cambridge University.
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