What is it called when one company owns so much of an industry that they can control the prices?
Rachel Davis
Updated on January 08, 2026
A monopoly refers to when a company and its product offerings dominate one sector or industry. Monopolies can be considered an extreme result of free-market capitalism and are often used to describe an entity that has total or near-total control of a market.
Who owns the most market share?
2019
| Rank | First quarter | Third quarter |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Microsoft 904,860 | Microsoft 1,062,000 |
| 2 | Apple 835,670 | Apple 1,012,000 |
| 3 | Amazon 874,710 | Amazon 858,680 |
| 4 | Alphabet 818,160 | Alphabet 838,020 |
Who is a monopoly company?
A monopoly is a company that exists in a market with little to no competition and can therefore set its own terms and prices when facing consumers, making them highly profitable.
What is market share of a company?
Definition: Out of total purchases of a customer of a product or service, what percentage goes to a company defines its market share. In other words, if consumers as a whole buy 100 soaps, and 40 of which are from one company, that company holds 40% market share. Market shares can be value or volume.
Which companies have a monopoly?
The following are examples of monopoly in real life.
- Monopoly Example #1 – Railways.
- Monopoly Example #2 – Luxottica.
- Monopoly Example #3 -Microsoft.
- Monopoly Example #4 – AB InBev.
- Monopoly Example #5 – Google.
- Monopoly Example #6 – Patents.
- Monopoly Example #7 – AT.
- Monopoly Example #8 – Facebook.
What does owning a stock in a company mean?
Most people realize that owning a stock means buying a percentage of ownership in the company, but many new investors have misconceptions about the benefits and responsibilities of being a shareholder.
Why do most companies sell shares of stock?
Why do most companies sell shares of stock? Although selling stock dilutes a company’s ownership, it raises money without subjecting owners to repayments or draining future cash flow. Selling stock and borrowing money have pros and cons, so whether you decide to sell company stock depends on your business goals.
How many shares of common stock does a company have?
Each share of common stock represents a small stake in the ownership of the issuing company, including the right to vote on company policy and financial decisions. If a business has a managing owner and one million shareholders, it actually has 1,000,001 owners.
What does it mean if you own 1 million shares of stock?
Even if you owned $1 million worth of shares, you’d still be a small potato with very little equity in the company. So what does this mean? Let’s take a look at three of the biggest misconceptions about being a shareholder.
