ServiceNow

Market dominance through ecosystem entanglement: ServiceNow's 44.4% market share in IT service management isn't defended through product superiority alone—it's maintained through metabolic lock-in. Once enterprises embed ServiceNow's Now Platform into their workflow infrastructure, the switching costs compound exponentially. At $13.2 billion projected 2025 revenue (22% year-over-year growth), the company demonstrates how platform economics create irreversible dependencies.

The biological parallel is mycorrhizal networks in forests: fungal threads infiltrate tree roots, becoming metabolically indispensable for nutrient absorption. Remove the fungus, and the tree doesn't just lose a supplier—it loses its absorption mechanism. ServiceNow operates identically. The platform doesn't just manage IT tickets; it becomes the central nervous system coordinating incident response, change management, asset tracking, and automated workflows. With subscription ARR exceeding $12.8 billion and 70+ new "platformization" deals in Q1 FY2025 alone, enterprises are consolidating fragmented tools onto ServiceNow's substrate.

This consolidation mirrors ecological succession: pioneer species (point solutions) establish initial functionality, but climax communities (integrated platforms) eventually dominate through superior resource efficiency. ServiceNow's AI integration—Now Assist for automated ticket resolution, predictive analytics for incident prevention—accelerates this succession. The company projects 2,500-3,500 total platformization deals by 2030, each representing an enterprise shifting from tool sprawl to unified infrastructure.

The lesson: platform power doesn't come from features—it comes from becoming embedded in operational metabolism. Once workflows depend on your substrate, migration becomes organizational surgery. ServiceNow's 97%+ gross retention rate proves the point: customers don't churn because leaving would require rebuilding their entire operational nervous system.