Amazon.com, Inc. is considered an example of an oligopoly due to many reasons such as there are only a limited number of firms operating in this industry and because of that, the actions of each firm can directly affect the whole market.
Amazon competes in a market with an oligopoly structure, with few rivals and high entry barriers, including Walmart and eBay. Because of the market structure, Amazon can charge more for its goods and benefit from economies of scale that its rivals cannot.
The FTC portrays Amazon as a monopoly by narrowing the relevant market to “online superstores.” That definition conveniently limits Amazon's competitors to Walmart and Target.
Oligopoly arises when a small number of large firms have all or most of the sales in an industry. Examples of oligopoly abound and include the auto industry, cable television, and commercial air travel. Oligopolistic firms are like cats in a bag.
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Is Amazon a monopoly?
The Federal Trade Commission portrays Amazon as a monopoly by narrowing the relevant market to “online superstores.” That definition conveniently limits Amazon's competitors to Walmart and Target.
Starbucks can be considered an oligopoly because it dominates the coffee and related drinks market. It only has a few large competitors and a lot of smaller ones that do not affect how much it controls the market. Its main competitors are Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds. To gain a...
The Walt Disney Company's most giant competition mass media conglomerates are NBCUniversal, AT&T Inc, and Paramount Global (Rose, 2022). Disney operates in an oligopolistic market.
Oligopoly is the best way to describe the market structure that IKEA's business model operates under. IKEA, which is recognized as one of the most successful furniture shops in the world, has a large portion of the market and is one of the industry's few major players.
If Amazon were a monopoly, its prices would be high and customers would have no recourse but to pay them. But Amazon's prices are low. Year in, year out, it retains its standing as the online vendor with the cheapest prices.
For example, Amazon operates as a marketplace in the sense that it allows third-party sellers to list their products on the site. These sellers set their own prices and pay Amazon a commission on each sale. In this way, Amazon is similar to other marketplaces like eBay or Etsy.
By stifling competition on price, product selection, quality, and by preventing its current or future rivals from attracting a critical mass of shoppers and sellers, Amazon ensures that no current or future rival can threaten its dominance.
Though Amazon may be dominant on its platform, with a steady stream of entrants into the market, it still allows competition to occur. Although its size is large, when analyzing Amazon's actions through the lens of the current definition of a monopoly from the Federal Trade Commission, Amazon is not a monopoly.
The US-based competitors of Amazon abound. Apart from Best Buy and eBay, Amazon also competes with Target. While Best Buy is known for retail electronics products and eBay for its auctioning system, Target is popular among US consumers for its various discount offerings, including food, household goods, and clothing.
Some experts do consider Amazon to be a monopsony as it has become the largest, and sometimes, only buyer in its market of specific goods and services that it then sells on its platform.
In the context of the rapid development of China's Internet economy, TikTok, as a short video platform with an oligopoly position in China's Internet economy, has a strong influence on platform advertising.
The type of market structure Coca-Cola operates is an oligopoly market. An Oligopoly market is where there are few players in the market. This market comprises a small number of sellers with large market shares. In the industry of soft drinks, Coca-Cola and Pepsi are the major players.
Therefore, even though Tesla is the main maker of these cars, it is not the only one and, thus, is not a monopoly. In reality, Tesla is in an oligopoly, which is a market with only a few firms.
Nike is not a monopoly. The company operates in oligopolistic market structures in which there are other able and worthy competitors. For this reason, the company must always do its best to train their human resources and labor force to keep up with the competitors or even outdo them.
The market structure that Netflix operates under is an oligopoly. In an oligopoly, there are a few companies that control the entire market. In the streaming market, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Are the main competitors. In this type of market, price wars have a chance of occurring.
It would be more appropriate to say that Google is part of an oligopoly – that is, one of a few companies that produce similar products and control what amounts to the entire market.
Last but not least, KFC is considered an oligopoly because of its nature of products. As same as other oligopoly, KFC also have identical products as McDonald in order to compete with other fast food based competitors. For example, Zinger Burger and Colonel Burger.
Giant oligopolies like Facebook and Google often expand due to innovation, network effects, and economies of scale. Regulatory challenges and evolving market dynamics sometimes struggle to keep up, allowing these companies to achieve dominant positions despite concerns over monopolistic behavior.
