The percentage of total category sales, customers, or another market measure held by a company or brand.
A competitive indicator of a business’s relative size within its market.
Short and sweet:
The percentage of total category sales, customers, or another market measure held by a company or brand.
A competitive indicator of a business’s relative size within its market.
See also: Share of Voice, Competitive Analysis, Target Market
Market share is the percentage of total sales within a category that belongs to one company, calculated by comparing its revenue or unit sales against the entire market rather than looking at growth in isolation. A business can grow its own revenue every year and still be losing share if competitors or new entrants are growing faster. Because of this, share is often a better signal of competitive position than raw growth numbers alone, especially in a market that’s expanding overall.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi have spent decades locked in a battle for market share in the soft drink category, with even a single percentage point shift triggering major strategy changes.
Android and iOS together account for nearly all of the global smartphone market, leaving every other operating system fighting over a sliver of what remains.
When Tesla first entered the auto industry, its slice of the market was tiny compared to legacy manufacturers like Toyota and Ford, though it has grown substantially as EV adoption accelerated.
