Walled Garden
A closed ecosystem where a company controls access to content, apps, and services, keeping users inside by making exit expensive.
Walled garden describes a closed ecosystem in which a company controls access to content, apps, and services – and keeps users inside by making leaving expensive or impossible.
The metaphor comes from the idea of a private garden surrounded by walls: everything is tidy and curated inside, but you can only enter and exit through the gates the owner controls. In tech, walled gardens are the platforms that combine hardware, software, marketplace, payment, and account into one sealed system.
How it connects to enshittification
A walled garden is the structure that makes enshittification possible. By locking users, developers, and sellers inside, the platform removes the competitive pressure that would otherwise force it to stay good. There is nowhere easy to switch to – so it can safely raise prices, degrade quality, and capture more surplus without fear of losing you.
Examples
- Apple’s iOS App Store – the only way to install apps on an iPhone, with a 15–30% commission on everything sold through it.
- Amazon’s marketplace – sellers are dependent on Amazon’s logistics and traffic, even as it competes against them.
- Meta / Facebook – one login, one data graph, one advertising system across billions of users.
The walled garden is not inherently evil – it buys convenience and security – but it is exactly the kind of concentration that enables the slow rot of enshittification once growth stalls.