this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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Enshittification

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What is enshittification?

The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source

The lifecycle of Big Internet

We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.

Embrace, extend and extinguish

We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.

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Komoot Acquired: History Says This Won't End Well (www.dcrainmaker.com)
submitted 12 hours ago by jo3rn@feddit.org to c/enshittification@lemmy.world
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Get ready for "enhancements" and look out for alternatives.

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[–] jo3rn@feddit.org 20 points 12 hours ago (4 children)

The buyer "Bending Spoons" also bought Evernote in 2023, for those who remember that downfall.

[–] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 13 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Time to shine a light on Joplin! It's FOSS, has great support for your own cloud, powerful plugins and is just an all around fine piece of note taking software

[–] egonallanon@lemm.ee 3 points 10 hours ago

+1 for joplin. I recently switched over to it and I'm a big fan.

[–] Wabbitsmiles@lemmy.world 16 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

from the article:

Evernote: Acquired in January 2023, in July 2023 Bending Spoons laid off all Evernote staff and transferred the operations to Bending Spoons HQ.

Mosaic Group: Acquired in January 2024, immediately laid off all 330 staff members, folded operations into Bending Spoons HQ.

WeTransfer: Acquired in July 2024, in September 2024 laid off 75% of all staff.

MeetUp: Acquired in January 2024, in February 2024 laid off a “significant” portion of the workforce

Brightcove: Acquired in November 2024, yesterday, March 19th, laid off 2/3rds of US employees

komoot knows what they're in for

[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago

I understand (even if I don’t like/agree) some downsizing, but firing everybody is a smooth brain move. Evernote was all the shit when I went to college in Europe, and MeetUp was also very popular, and now they are barely mentioned. Maybe these companies started declining before the a acquisition, okay, but then why buy them in the first place?

[–] mormund@feddit.org 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I never used Evernote, but I know of the layoffs. Is the product worse now than before the acquisition?

[–] Wabbitsmiles@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

I was an early adopter and lover of Evernote. It was a simple proposition, syncing your notes across all devices, and relatively good management system. Used it for school notes, managing life, planning holidays, events etc.

Loved loved it.

Then came along Google keep which did everything, and had a simpler cleaner UI/UX. Made the switch and never looked back. Until now (de-googling)

I guess the trajectory is pretty much the same for all these other companies where they couldn't sustain the growth, and it reached a limit within their reach.

Besides business model decisions, perhaps it's also down to the appetite and ambition of the founder.