Search for Zerodha on Google or the app stores, and the first thing you’ll see is ads from our competitors. The only way for us to show up first is to bid on our own brand keyword. So we’d essentially be paying to be visible when a customer is actively looking for us by name, and if we don’t, competitors will happily take that spot.

What’s worse is that ads now show up above and below our own keyword. That tells you everything about where platforms are headed.

The only winners here are the app stores who collect the ad spend on top of the commissions they already charge on in-app purchases. And one way or another, this marketing spend eventually flows back to customers in the form of higher prices.

We live in a world where everybody keeps talking about disintermediation, but these platforms are some of the most powerful and profitable gatekeepers in history. They sit in the middle and monetise both sides.

If you believe in the logic of enshittification, this is just the beginning. Platforms extract as much as they can, for as long as they can, until they can’t. More ads means more scrolling before you hit any organic results, which means brands that don’t pay simply stop being visible. That’s manageable if you’re a large company with a marketing budget. For smaller businesses and startups it can be devastating. They just can’t afford to keep up.

The sheer irony of having to pay to show up when someone is already searching for you by name never stops being absurd.