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Two By Two Fri, 04 Apr 25 |
An abridged, narrative version of the latest episode of Two by Two, The Ken’s premium weekly business podcast. |
Are we in the "enshittification" phase of Indian consumer tech?. To live up to their perceived value, companies have gotten creative in extracting more from their customers. All at the cost of a worse user experience
| 4 min read |
Good Morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
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I recently moved to a new apartment, and the very first thing I did—even before the ink on the agreement could dry—was start searching for a packer and mover. And it wasn’t long before I had narrowed my options down to two.
Now, both Porter and Nobroker offered me all the services I was looking for, but I settled on Porter very quickly. Not because Porter was doing something special (I mean, sure, there were some neat a la carte options, but nothing particularly groundbreaking), but because of what Nobroker was doing.
| Nobroker booking page, Source: Hari Krishna |
A surge price? For slots that may be days away?
If I was requesting same-day service, maybe I would have found it more acceptable. But frankly, this just put me off.
And this isn’t just a Nobroker problem. Platform after platform, company after company, India’s consumer tech sector seems to have become hell bent on finding new and creative ways to squeeze ever more from customers. And for the same products.
For instance, the same day Nobroker managed to disappoint me, I whipped out Zomato to order lunch. Only to get to the payment page and notice something I’d ignored so far. A Rs 10 platform fee. That in itself is nothing extraordinary (though it used to be Rs 7 just a few months ago), but Zomato seems to have turned it into some kind of fan donation feature now.
| Section on Zomato's payment page, Source: Hari Krishna |
It instantly reminded me of this rather hilarious feature that phone accessories maker Dbrand sells, called (not) Extortion.
Basically, you can choose to pay them however much you want. And in return, you get… nothing.
| Dbrand's (not) Extortion page, Source: Hari Krishna |
And the final blow to my patience that day came from Cred, when it showed me this cute little pop up trying to sell me a ‘fraud shield’ to protect me from scams.
I’m sure many of you will relate to how frustrating these experiences have become. And there’s a word for this bad ageing of products and features, coined by blogger and journalist Cory Doctorow in 2023.
Enshittification.
A.k.a, the gradual decline in the quality and user experience of online platforms as they prioritise profits over user satisfaction. (You should read his wonderful piece in Financial Times for a deeper understanding of the topic.)
And without a doubt, the enshittening of India’s consumer tech products is upon us. You just have to look at the country’s most popular apps and online services.
This week’s edition of Two by Two, with hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen Gopal Krishnan, is all about how and why India’s consumer tech platforms are becoming enshittified. And our wonderful guests for the week—Aditya Suresh, head of Indian equity research at Macquarie, and Abhishek Madan, ex-VP of Paytm*—help us take it far beyond just shallow observation.
| L-R: Rohin Dharmakumar, Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Abhishek Madan, Aditya Suresh |
It’s an episode that swings in many directions and leads to a few inconvenient truths and realisations. And it’s one I’m sure you will thoroughly enjoy listening (and relating) to.
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Please write to [email protected] with your thoughts and ideas. We’ll see you again next week.
Regards,
Hari Krishna
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Hari works as a producer and researcher on Two by Two and First Principles. He’s from a “little village in Kerala where nothing much happens”, enjoys reading books (although he loves buying them even more), and appreciates films—be it on Netflix or Criterion.
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