HBR IdeaCast – Episode Summary

Episode Title: The Trouble with Tech Companies (and Their Strategies)
Date: October 7, 2025
Host: Adi Ignatius (A) & Alison Beard (B)
Guest: Cory Doctorow (C), author of "Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It"

Overview

This episode delves into the declining quality and user experience of major tech platforms like Facebook, Amazon, and Google—a phenomenon Cory Doctorow calls "enshittification." The conversation explores the business strategies driving this decline, the mechanics of user and business lock-in, the effects of weakened competition and regulatory action, and whether hope exists for meaningful reform. Doctorow blends sharp critique with historical context, policy insight, and a plea for collective action.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Naming the Phenomenon: "Enshittification"

(01:06–04:20)

• Concept Introduction:
  Adi and Alison introduce Cory Doctorow’s term "enshittification," describing how tech platforms start off valuable, then deteriorate as their incentives shift away from users to business customers, and finally to maximizing value for executives/shareholders.
  • “We fall in love with them, but they evolve into something we fall out of love with, but we're kind of stuck in their world.” — Adi (01:06)
• Doctorow’s Theory:
  Doctorow breaks down the process:
  • Platforms are initially user-focused to attract people.
  • Once enough users are "locked in," value is shifted toward business customers.
  • After businesses become dependent, value is siphoned to shareholders, with both users and business customers left dissatisfied.
  • “The end goal is to draw out all surplus value allocated to shareholders and executives and create an equilibrium where there's just like the minimum homeopathic residue of value left...” — Cory Doctorow (03:43)

2. The Role of Lock-In and Monopoly Power

(04:20–07:15)

• Monopsony and Monopoly:
  Doctorow highlights seldom-discussed monopsony (buyer power), where loss of a giant platform as a customer is catastrophic, e.g., YouTube for creators, Walmart for suppliers.
• Consumer Lock-In:
  Innovations in lock-in (technical, legal, and economic) make it hard for consumers to leave even when value ebbs.
  • Example: Printer cartridges locked by software and law; Uber's predatory pricing crushing competition.
  • “The primary source of innovation in Silicon Valley is finding ways to lock in end users.” — Cory Doctorow (05:20)

3. Case Study – Facebook’s Downward Spiral

(07:15–11:15)

• Three Stages of Decay:
  1. User Attraction: Promises of privacy and control attract users away from incumbents (e.g., MySpace).
  2. Value Reallocation: Users locked in by network effects and collective action problems; businesses lured with targeted ads and access.
  3. Extraction for Shareholders: Once both sides are locked, platform quality declines, costs rise for business customers, and users see less of what they want.
• Concrete Effects:
  • Procter & Gamble saw no sales drop after cutting $200 million in programmatic ads (ad fraud rampant).
  • Publishers’ and users’ experiences diminished as Facebook withholds reach and prioritizes paid content.
  • “To create a void through into which Facebook can stuff things people will pay to show them to see.” — Cory Doctorow (11:00)

4. Why Should This Matter to Listeners?

(11:15–13:51)

• Real-World Harm:
  Declining platforms damage not just consumer fun but also livelihoods.
  • Example: "Uber for nurses" apps use credit data to exploit wage desperation.
  • Legal and regulatory laxity (no meaningful new privacy law since 1988).
  • “If you're getting a catheter inserted today by a nurse who had to drive Uber till midnight… that's bad for you, too.” — Cory Doctorow (13:33)

5. Is This Just Capitalism, or Are Tech Platforms Special?

(13:51–16:24)

• Loss of Market Discipline:
  Historically, competition (antitrust), labor power, and interoperability disciplined firms. Policies in recent decades weakened these checks.
  • Technology is unique because user power (tech worker scarcity, interoperability) also eroded due to IP laws and layoffs.
  • “It's not the iron laws of economics... It's specific policy choices that were predicted to have this outcome, and that did have this outcome.” — Cory Doctorow (16:08)

6. The Role of AI & the Future of Search

(16:24–18:31)

• AI as a Double-Edged Sword:
  • While AI search may seem promising, its primary investment justification is shifting labor’s share to capital (job displacement).
  • Most real AI value is in enhancing profit extraction (e.g., personalized pricing, wage offers) rather than real user or social benefit.
  • “AI salesmen are much better at convincing a boss to fire a worker and replace them with an AI that can't do their job than AI is at doing that worker's job.” — Cory Doctorow (17:34)

7. What Can Be Done?

(18:31–21:30)

• Businesses & Individuals:
  Doctorow is blunt: there’s little that consumers and SMEs can do individually; policy change is vital.
  • Example: Epic Games fighting app store monopolies with antitrust lawsuits as major action.
  • Local industry associations that exclude large monopolists may help, but institutional change is needed.
  • “You can't fix that by having a better product… The only way you can fix that is with private rights of action in antitrust law and industrial associations that back them.” — Cory Doctorow (20:19)

8. Global Policy Winds and Baffling Optimism

(21:30–23:29)

• Recent Regulatory Action:
  While the US has backslid, countries worldwide (EU, Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea, China) have begun pushing back against Big Tech with more effective enforcement.
  • “Something amazing is happening in our political landscape. This is, you know, it's like gravity started working in reverse and no one's noticed…” — Cory Doctorow (22:31)
• Unknown Forces:
  He cites “Stein’s Law”—that which cannot go on, won’t—suggesting unsustainable rent extraction is hitting limits and finally triggering reform.

9. Why Do Tech Leaders “Go Bad?”

(23:29–25:24)

• Moral Drift through Lack of Discipline:
  Idealistic founders can become exploitative when competitive pressures and constraints are removed.
  • “What we did was we removed the sources of discipline. Being shriven of all sources of discipline allows your stupidest ideas to conquer your life.” — Cory Doctorow (25:15)

10. Closing on Hope vs. Optimism

(25:24–26:17)

• A Distinction:
  Doctorow is “hopeful” rather than “optimistic,” emphasizing hope as seeing paths to improvement, not assuming a good outcome.
  • “Hope does not mean that you think things will go well. It means that you can see a way to make them better.” — Cory Doctorow (25:37)
  • He sees unexpected regulatory pushbacks as a source of “tons of hope.”

Memorable Quotes

• “Enshittification: a description of how platforms decay, backed by theory of why they decay.” — Cory Doctorow (03:17)
• “The primary source of innovation in Silicon Valley is finding ways to lock in end users.” — Cory Doctorow (05:20)
• “To a first approximation, P&G's ads were either not being seen by anyone... or they were being seen by the wrong people.” — Cory Doctorow (10:05)
• “AI salesmen are much better at convincing a boss to fire a worker and replace them with an AI that can't do their job than AI is at doing that worker's job.” — Cory Doctorow (17:34)
• “You can't fix that by having a better product... The only way you can fix that is with private rights of action in antitrust law and industrial associations that back them.” — Cory Doctorow (20:19)
• “Hope does not mean that you think things will go well. It means that you can see a way to make them better.” — Cory Doctorow (25:37)

Important Timestamps

• 01:06 – Introduction to "enshittification" & platform decline
• 03:43 – Doctorow explains the three phases of platform decay
• 05:20 – Methods of user and business lock-in
• 07:33 – Step-by-step: How Facebook shifted from beloved to exploitative
• 11:52 – Why users should care: real-world consequences of platform decline
• 13:51 – Is this just capitalism or are tech platforms unique?
• 16:24 – Discussion turns to AI and whether it represents hope or new risks
• 18:57 – Doctorow on who can really make a difference and what action looks like
• 21:36 – Surprising international momentum in policy, despite US inertia
• 23:29 – Why do idealistic tech leaders become ruthless monopolists?
• 25:32 – Doctorow on the difference between hope and optimism

Conclusion

Cory Doctorow’s analysis offers a sharp, detailed, and often sardonic exploration of tech platform degeneration. He attributes it not to inexorable market forces or simple greed, but to deliberate policy choices that removed both competition and user power. While individual or business efforts are limited, recent global shifts in policy offer real—if still mysterious—reasons to hope for change. The episode is a candid call for coordinated policy action, not just resigned acceptance.

For those who missed the episode, this breakdown emphasizes the critical, sometimes uncomfortable realities shaping today’s digital platforms—and why these trends matter not just for users, but for democracies and economies worldwide.