Becoming an ecosystem entered the corporate vocabulary and became the agenda of almost every meeting. The seduction is real. Bringing together services, products and partners around a central platform transforms the brand into a single destination, deepens the bond and makes switching to another brand more costly for the user. Not every business should, can or can be an ecosystem.
Change starts with the fundamentals and mindset. Exit the product catalog logic and enter the logic of connected experiences. The rest is a consequence of a cohesive internal culture, integrated governance and clarity of the problem that the brand seeks to solve in people’s lives.
Whoever has the customer has everything
Bringing in a new customer can cost 5 to 25 times more than keeping someone who is already with you (Harvard Business Review), and ecosystems reduce this cost by plugging each new solution into a living, known relationship. Mercado Livre is a didactic case. Marketplace, payments, credit, logistics and advertising work as gears that feed each other. Mercado Pago, which began as a payment method for the marketplace, became a digital bank and a driver of retention and monetization of buyers and sellers.
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Known path
It is a strategy for a market with too much supply, short attention span and compressed margin. In the fight for relevance, any relearning brings down conversion and ecosystems win because they offer mental shortcuts. iFood proves the point by keeping order, payment and monitoring in the same environment for the consumer and, on the partner side, concentrating digital account, credit and advance payment. In addition to food, it expanded to markets, pharmacies, beverages and pets. Same login, same payment flow, same tracking.
Fewer brands more strength
Simplicity has become a competitive advantage, and the Global Brand Simplicity Index shows that 64% of people would pay more for simple experiences. In practice, this translates into lean portfolios and unique interfaces that generate coherence, increase recall and reduce effort and cost. Localiza reinforces this logic by bringing Meoo car subscriptions under the same mobility umbrella, reducing the effort to understand the customer and preserving the same promise, with the same trust.
Continuous presence
Strong brands don’t live on peaks. They live on frequency. Being present for different needs of the same audience creates recurring contact, nurtures bonds and strengthens brand recall. When the utility is daily, the brand leaves the campaign and becomes routine. In the Banco Inter app, customers pay, invest, buy with cashback on Inter Shop, book trips on Inter Travel and take out insurance. Presence becomes constant, increasing perceived relevance and converting convenience into desire.
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Put data to work
Better data, better experiences. Observing purchasing habits in various contexts deepens customer understanding and allows you to personalize narrative, journey and anticipate demands. Reliable LTV increases the quality of the decision and points out where to expand the assortment, when to subsidize shipping and which offer unlocks the next cycle. Netflix transforms usage signals into recommendations, merchandising and pricing. The ad-supported plan already reaches 94 million monthly active users, the company raised revenue and margin projections in 2025, and the market value surpassed US$500 billion after an increase of ~70% in 12 months.
Conquering is expensive, retaining is smart
Ecosystem is not a salad of brands. It’s the way to gain a foothold in crowded markets, retain those who are already with you, run operations with less friction and accelerate innovation in an environment that learns from each use. Retention costs less than acquisition when the next sale happens within the same known relationship. Simplicity increases perceived value and recommendation when the brand reduces steps and speaks only one language throughout the journey. Decisions are better when LTV and behavior are in the same panel. Frequency of use sustains recall without inflating media cost.
Competitive advantage arises from this sum and attracts more people by solving several needs in the same place. More people stay because leaving hurts. The operation is profitable because areas share data, channels and infrastructure. Innovation accelerates because new solutions are tested in the environment the customer already trusts. When the journey takes place at home, every dollar invested works twice. First to convert. Then to generate engagement.
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Fewer brands. More business.
