§ 16 · SECTOR DEEP DIVE · 8 PLATFORMS
Education, Research & Professional Information
Where decades of accumulated knowledge create irreplaceable dependencies.
8
Platforms
4.21
Mean B
4.08
Median B
7/8
Above B = 1
Key Structural Finding
Academic and professional information lock-in is invisible to consumer analysis but extreme at institutional level. Elsevier/Scopus (B=6.89) controls the citation graph that determines academic careers — leaving means losing your publication record. The legal information duopoly (Westlaw B=6.63, LexisNexis B=6.46) demonstrates that proprietary classification systems (Key Number System, Shepard’s Citations) create switching costs that no AI-powered alternative has yet overcome. Canvas LMS proves that multi-year institutional contracts with decades of course archives create lock-in through accumulated content, not feature superiority.
Sector Rankings — Elsevier/Scopus (6.89) to Coursera (0.62)
| # | Platform | Ticker | Mkt Cap | Capture | Escape | B | Zone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Elsevier/Scopus | REL.L | $80B (RELX) | 1.84 | 0.27 | 6.89 | BLACK HOLE |
| 02 | Westlaw (Thomson Reuters) | TRI | $80B | 1.90 | 0.29 | 6.63 | BLACK HOLE |
| 03 | LexisNexis | REL.L sub | N/A | 1.85 | 0.29 | 6.46 | BLACK HOLE |
| 04 | Clarivate (Web of Science) | CLVT | $1.4B | 1.45 | 0.29 | 4.99 | BLACK HOLE |
| 05 | Canvas LMS | INST | $3B | 1.26 | 0.40 | 3.17 | BLACK HOLE |
| 06 | Turnitin | Private | $3B | 1.00 | 0.32 | 3.10 | BLACK HOLE |
| 07 | Blackboard | Private | N/A | 0.83 | 0.46 | 1.82 | EVENT HORIZON |
| 08 | Coursera | COUR | $0.9B | 0.44 | 0.72 | 0.62 | GROWING GRAVITY |
B-Index Distribution
Mean Parameter Profile
Capture Escape Extended