Basically, the process of VCs buying up useful, well-liked, usually modestly profitable concerns, then stripping them for short term profits.
It's an important thing to talk about but "enshittification" sounds stupid.
Cory Doctorow might have coined the term but I can't be bothered to verify. If someone wants to figure that out definitively, there's M25 here for you.
1,000The wiki page for "Enshittification" claims Doctorow is the originator of the term. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification#Definition ]
The same wiki page says Cory Doctorow himself has also used the term "platform decay" for this concept (which is pretty close to website decay, which has already been proposed) [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification#cite_note-:1-1 ]
However, if I wanted another term for the especially pernicious version that happens when there are network effects (e.g. if the platform is a social media site, and can therefore get a lot worse without the users bailing) I might go with something like "network capture".
Vulture capitalism
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/vulturecapitalist.asp#:~:text=What%20Is%20a%20Vulture%20Capitalist,it%20on%20for%20a%20profit.
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The end of the subsidised service.
The thing that’s misleading about these suggestions is it sounds like it’s being done maliciously (some times yes it is). Generally, examples of enshittification started with customer experiences unsustainably bank rolled by investment without a sustainable business model (either because they don’t know how to earn revenue from the nascent business yet or they want to grab competitor market share). Eventually, investors are less keen to fund a business that loses money every year, so the party ends.
Basically, they have not become enshittified, they always were shit businesses, but cheap capital helped pretend otherwise.
If you’re specifically talking about websites I think enshittification being the wiki page’s name shows that enshittification has a very specific meaning though, and there are plenty of examples of mainstream publications using it. Platform decay sounds like it could be due to anything (could it be audience disappearing? The product becoming dated?). Degradation also has the same issue. Vulture capitalism is specifically about distressed companies (because they’re ‘vultures’). Brand dilution is kind of related but not always.
Ultimately enshittification seems to be the generally accepted term for the specific thing you’re talking about. Is the cost of the clarity you lose by not using what seems to be the widely used term because you personally don’t like it worth it?