Spotify
10 SWEDEN (SPOT, $260)
Daniel Ek’s pioneering audio
platform has always been a
clever piece of Swedish kit— a
two-sided marketplace that
makes money both from listen-
ers and creators. With the
live-entertainment industry on
its knees, thanks to a pandemic,
Spotify has a fresh window of
opportunity to double down on
artist services and exclusive
content (such as podcasts) and
has proved effective at wooing
customers away from competi-
tors like Apple.
Match Group
48 U.S. (MTCH, $131)First-time subscrib-
ers flocked to Match
Group’s apps in the
wake of spring lock-
downs, as singles
looked for ways to
connect while stuck
at home. The com-
pany, which became
a stand-alone entity
in July, seized the
moment, rolling out
new features like
video-chat. With its
biggest app, Tinder,
alone bringing in
close to $1.4 billion
in revenue this year,
investors are crush-
ing hard: Shares
have nearly doubled
over the past 12
months.Tw i t t e r
23 U.S. (TWTR, $45)Twitter is never far
from the headlines
as it continues to
face heavy scrutiny
from politicians, reg-
ulators, and the
wider public for how
it moderates hate
speech and misin-
formation on its ser-
vice. But despite
that ongoing strug-
gle, the social media
network has in-
creased its revenue
11 % on average over
the past three years.
Led by CEO Jack
Dorsey, Twitter re-
ported $3.5 billion
in sales last year,
and was valued at
$35.5 billion in No-
vember of 2020.DIGITAL LIFESTYLE
X MARKS THE SPOT(IFY
Lil Nas X performs at a Spotify
event in Los Angeles in
January 2 020.
ServiceNow
1 U.S. (NOW, $ 518 )An enterprise soft-
ware firm that helps
businesses manage
digital workflows,
ServiceNow’s stock
has been on a tear,
rising 108% from its
low in April. Though
the company now
boasts a market cap
of $101 billion, it is
still consistently
growing revenues
at or near 30% per
quarter. One recent
client success
story? ServiceNow
partnered with the
NBA and WNBA
to ensure those
leagues could oper-
ate safely during
the pandemic, win-
ning plaudits from
NBA commissioner
Adam Silver, who
said, “We would not
have been success-
ful without them.”
Service Now CEO
Bill McDermott
(who previously ran
SAP) tells Fortune:
“The future of work
is being redefined.
We’re hungry, hum-
ble, and passionate
about making the
world of work, work
better for people.”SO F T WARE
Former SAP CEO
Bill McDermott
took the reins
at ServiceNow
in 2019.THE FUTURE 5 0 • THE LIST 2021
SPOTIFY: FRAZER HARRISON—GETTY IMAGES; MCDERMOTT: COURTESY OF SERVICENOW