Platforms follow a predictable cycle called 'inshittification.' First, they offer a great user experience to achieve scale. Next, they squeeze users to benefit advertisers. Finally, they squeeze advertisers to maximize their own profits. This model explains why platforms inevitably prioritize profit over user well-being and safety.

Platforms first attract users with quality service, then abuse them to benefit business customers, and finally exploit both groups to extract all value for themselves, leaving a degraded service.

AI coding assistants can reverse-engineer hardware with poor software, like Mural photo frames, and generate a superior, custom web interface in minutes. This effectively bypasses the manufacturer's intended user experience, commoditizing the software layer of hardware products.

Modern smart homes, with their touch screens and IoT appliances, often create frustrating user experiences. Basic tasks like turning on lights or washing dishes become complex, requiring demos or app installations. This "regression" highlights a systemic failure to prioritize simplicity and reliability over feature-creep in the IoT space.

Farmers can often perform physical repairs on their tractors, but the equipment remains inoperable without a proprietary software code from an authorized technician. This tactic turns a mechanical fix into a software-gated service, creating an artificial and costly bottleneck.

Platforms first attract users with good service, then lock them in. Next, they worsen the user experience to benefit business customers. Finally, they squeeze business customers, extracting all value for shareholders, leaving behind a dysfunctional service.

Companies like Apple and John Deere embed software that rejects non-proprietary replacement parts. This tactic, called "parts pairing," destroys interoperability and forces consumers to buy expensive, manufacturer-approved components, locking them into a closed ecosystem.

Samsung faces backlash for putting unskippable ads on its smart fridges without an ad-free tier. This strategy devalues premium products and alienates customers, showing the risk of aggressive "ad creep" into private consumer spaces.

Platforms first attract users with a great service, then pivot to monetizing those users for business customers, and finally extract all value for themselves, degrading the experience for everyone else. This cycle, termed "inshittification," is enabled by locking in users and businesses who become too dependent to leave.