Customers are locked into a vendor's world of products and services. Using another vendor is impossible without incurring substantial switching costs, and thus protecting the company from losing customers. This lock-in is either generated by technological mechanisms or substantial interdependencies of products or services.
How they do it: LinkedIn has several mechanisms in place to keep the communication and exchange between users on their platform. One example is that it is not possible to send email adresses in initial contact requests for free users. In addition, the platform’s value to the individual user grows with its network, increasing the barrier to switch to another network.
Learn more about LinkedIn →
How they do it: Through the personal nature of a user’s Facebook network of friends, switching costs to other platforms are increased with a larger network of friends on the platform.
Learn more about Facebook →
How they do it: Once a customer owns a Nintendo console, the only games compatible are the ones licensed by Nintendo itself. This means that Nintendo generates additional revenue with every game sold. It is generally not possible to run 3rd party games on the console which are not certified by Nintendo.
Learn more about Nintendo →
How they do it: Hewlett-Packard’s printers have only limited compability with 3rd party ink cartridges, leading to a lock-in effect for customers once they purchased a Hewlett-Packard printer device.
Learn more about Hewlett-Packard →
How they do it: Apple has created an ecosystem of hardware and software combinations. For example can the native music app of the iPhone only be connected through the Apple software iTunes. This creates a lock-in effect, also when the user wants to synchronize other media across devices.
Learn more about Apple iPhone/AppStore →
Below, the top industries for the pattern "Lock-in" are displayed, in order to get insights into how this pattern is applied across different industries. We've collected data from 5 firms using this pattern.
Below, the pattern "Lock-in" is analyzed based on co-occurrence, in order to get insights into how this business model pattern is applied in combination with other patterns within the firms we studied.
