These are chemicals required for improving crop yields (fertilizers), protecting crops (pesticides and herbicides), and enhancing soil health. Meta, for example, is the largest and most dominant player in this industry. It operates Facebook, Whatsapp, Messenger, Instagram, and Threads. It has over 3.74 billion monthly active users across its core products.
Furthermore, the United States is the second-largest automobile market (behind China) in terms of light vehicle registrations. It is estimated that autonomous vehicles will disrupt the US market in the coming decade. The US has oligopoly examples in india the highest rate of vehicle ownership per capita globally, with more than 830 active vehicles per 1,000 people in 2016. About 6.3 million cars were sold in the country in the same year. Selling costs are more important under oligopoly than under monopolistic competition. The number of the firms is so small that an action by any one firm is likely to affect the rival firms.
Likewise, when one firm lowers its price, other firms also decrease their prices so that they do not lose customers. A partner at a law firm says market monopoly in itself should not be a cause of concern for the regulator. “In case of competition law, without having any evidence of abuse the regulator should not try to discipline big companies just because it doesnt like them. This is not the intent of competition law,” he says. According to competition experts, and market dominance do not always mean market abuse.
This is due to those small number of businesses that do not want to enhance the level of competition. Some of these barriers to entry include regulatory restrictions, limited access to supply and distribution channels, economies of scale, etc. At the same time, oligopoly helps lower the average cost of production of goods. If the extra profit margin is being used in innovations, this suits companies with high R&D costs. An oligopoly is a form of market form where a sector/industry is dominated by a small group of large companies.
Firms use other methods like advertising, better services to customers, etc. to compete with each other. In the United States, approximately 286.9 million registered cars were on the road in 2020. This means that nearly 91% of American households own at least one vehicle. Presently, three companies that dominate the automobile industry in the US are Ford Motor Company, Toyota Motor Corporation, and General Motors with a market share of 13.9%, 16.8%, and 15.1%, respectively. These percentages may not appear significant at first; however, when compared to other brands’ market shares, it puts the picture into perspective.
Customers can experience higher prices and inferior products because of oligopolies. However, this does not happen to the extent that it would through a monopoly, as oligopolies still experience competition. Sometimes independent companies within an industry are closely tied together, which can decrease competition between them and further cement the existence of an oligopoly.
Moreover, these provided budget-friendly products with the convenience of being located in every city. This makes it nearly impossible for small businesses to compete against such large corporations. Presently, there are three major superstores in the United States that control a whopping 85% of this sector. If the firms produce differentiated products, then it is called differentiated or imperfect oligopoly.
They capture a significant share in terms of operating rates and usage terms. When we look at the overall prime time programming and content selection, we will observe that there is also considerable unity. Oligopolistic markets, thus, give rise to kinked demand curves.
There are only a few firms that control the entire sales and process of the market. In other words, the large number of firms is quite small in an oligopolistic market. It is designed in such a way that a single firm can execute selfish behavior or profit-maximizing behavior. If it does, it automatically goes against the fundamentals of an oligopolistic market.
Famously called economic moat, stock market analysts love the competitive advantage that a company has/likely to have over its peers. The profits maximization of an oligopoly market is governed by the Kinked demand curve. Oligopoly industries are more stable over other market strategies as they work on collaboration. Thus, they are more beneficial in the era of economic competition.
It’s a key player in the contract semiconductor manufacturing industry. Google, primarily through its subsidiary YouTube, controls the online video-sharing and social media space. However, AT&T is currently the biggest American telecommunication company in terms of revenue. In 2019, it produced a total revenue of over $181.19 billion, which is nearly $50 billion higher than the revenue generated by the runner-up, Verizon. American Airlines is the world’s second-largest airline based on sales, reaching $44.9 billion in revenue in 2019.
The situation when a particular firm or industry is more powerful in the market as compared to other industries. Competitive oligopoly is the opposite of collusive oligopoly and basically a competitive strategy. This type of oligopoly occurs due to lack of understanding between the industries of the market.
Similarly, the automobile industry is also an example of oligopoly. Let us take the case of India, no doubt, there are several automobile industries. Though cars are available at different price points, those prices are related more to the trim and model of the car itself. Luxury vehicles across all manufacturers are in similar price points, whereas more budget cars will also be at similar price points across manufacturers. Operating systems for smartphones and computers provide excellent examples of oligopolies in big tech. Apple iOS and Google Android dominate smartphone operating systems, while computer operating systems are overshadowed by Apple and Microsoft Windows.