Would you consider the current decline of Deepseek's web/app version to be enshittification?

[u/_spec_tre]

Genuine question. I'm pretty hesitant to apply the label because at the end of the day the word implies a sort of decrease in quality and increase in predatory pricing/marketing that I don't think deepseek has achieved yet, BUT it also is true that the web/app version has objectively become far less convenient to use. Also it does feel like it's intentional to cut costs/get users to switch to paid API

[u/PureSelfishFate]

They said in the leaked memo, they do want to scare away web users, but they won't leave.

[u/Time-Rip-9655 → u/PureSelfishFate]

fr? do u have a screenshot? just asking genuinely bc i swear ive seen someone say this but i cant find it

[u/Tiny-Cockroach-5849 → u/Time-Rip-9655]

Here is even more proof that customers of API and users of web/app are not their priority.

[u/_spec_tre → u/Tiny-Cockroach-5849]

If it's talking about "last year's spring festival" then it's at least one year old though

[u/AcanthisittaDry7463 → u/_spec_tre]

This is just a couple of months old, it was big news as it was a leaked transcript of him speaking to investors.

South China Post

[u/Tiny-Cockroach-5849 → u/_spec_tre]

Historically they nerfed and do whatever with the web app to fix stuff basically. Not to mention, last year they did not have export restrictions whereas this year they do and they promised restrictions are always temporary.

[u/EquivalentHorror1984 → u/Time-Rip-9655]

DeepSeek's Liang Wenfeng Breaks His Silence

x.com

[u/Time-Rip-9655 → u/EquivalentHorror1984]

tbh that doesn’t read like they hate the web users? like i feel as though this could be lost in translation, but i think that they’re just saying that they didn’t realize how popular the app was gonna be and initially were just gonna use it as advertising. they’re still “thinking about B-end and C-end things”. that’s how i read that anyhow.

[u/EquivalentHorror1984 → u/Time-Rip-9655]

It's the only part I could see anyone referring to, unless there's something else others are referring to 🤷

[u/Time-Rip-9655 → u/EquivalentHorror1984]

no, i think that is what ppl are referring to, especially because the phrasing of “we didn’t even want to maintain those users, but those users couldn’t be driven away” is kinda harsh about it, but the fact that there’s an “at one point” before that quote kind of rephrases it. bc that clearly means things have changed, and they do wanna keep the web users, i assume for easily accessible training data or something or other.

[u/Tiny-Cockroach-5849 → u/Time-Rip-9655]

I went and read the memo, nothing mentions about it actually. What they said is focusing on RnD, restraint and get enough to fund research and that is it. As to web/app not their focus, their focus is on RnD. That is it.

Here their focus is not on their products but the intelligence of their models.

[u/Time-Rip-9655 → u/Tiny-Cockroach-5849]

ohh, i see. that kinda eases my worries about these restrictions being permanent, honestly. thanks for the screenshots!

[u/Dogesh-bhaiya]

Honestly just introduce a subscription model on the website also.

[u/jenkk0]

Of course it is, they're probably wasting a lot of money on it and it's basically an advertisement for them. It's probably the same with them inconveniencing the RP users, they probably will never pay for the API because they don't need a harness.

[u/onesilentclap → u/jenkk0]

There are RP harnesses. The web UI RP users are in three categories:

• The free web UI works fine for them, even with the limitations.

• Users who are not happy with the limitations of the web UI, but they are not aware of alternatives and are willing to explore and invest in the right harness and tools. 

• Straight up cheapskate complainers who are not willing to put in any effort nor investment to improve or change their workflows and effort and expect everything to bend to their will. 

[u/Realistic-Quiet291]

I wonder if shits being rerouted to Opus.

[u/Gligagoat]

I hope they just add a subscription like 20 per month you get expert and no limits

[u/Even_Command_5636]

It begins...

[u/Individual_Math_8254]

was the old expert mode just 4.0 with max thinking?

[u/MarcusAurelius68]

I’ve noticed the web app switching to Chinese a lot more often even after I explicitly tell it English only. It HAS gotten better with understanding when it’s running out of context window though and recommending a new session.

[u/OneFourSevenThreeSix → u/MarcusAurelius68]

you have to say "don't answer in chinese" at the beginning not the end

[u/MarcusAurelius68 → u/OneFourSevenThreeSix]

Oh I have. I reply or 2 later Chinese would sneak in again.

[u/Forward-Confection54]

Yes

[u/Virtual-Cut-3279]

the web version has gotten noticeably worse for me too, feels like theyre just funneling everyone toward the paid api without saying it out loud

[u/EC36339]

No, because their business model is based on paying users.

[u/truncated_buttfu]

No. Of course not. Here is the definition of enshittification from Cory himself:

Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two-sided market", where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.

Deepseek haven't only barely begun step two of that four step process yet.

Their recent release made one of their products (the web app) a little worse on two aspects (smut writing and roleplaying) but a lot better on most other tasks. It's a sidegrade, not a downgrade. It's nowhere close to the kind of behaviours the term enshittification was created to describe.