Oligopoly

An oligopoly is a market structure that involves a small group of large companies that have all or almost all sales in the industry and often collude to reduce competition. The level of competition among firms within this market system is lower, while companies have monopoly power and obtain higher revenue.

Why do oligopolies exist?

Companies often collaborate to set a specific price or an output rather than compete with each other because of several economic benefits oligopolies allow to obtain. Firms in oligopolies control the prices, making it more difficult for other businesses to enter the market. This way, they prevent the emergence of new competitors that can hinder their business growth. However, new companies can charge lower prices and jeopardize the longevity of revenues that colluding companies have.

You can find oligopolies among steel manufacturers, oil companies, railroads, airlines, and pharmaceuticals. In this market structure, companies choose to obtain the benefits of their collaboration rather than compete. They set prices together or choose a leader that will increase the prices, and other firms will follow.

Now that you know why oligopolies exist, let’s talk about the top features this market structure has.

There are four main types of market structures: pure competition, monopoly, oligopoly, and monopolistic competition. We’ll now review the main features of this market system to distinguish an oligopoly from other market forms.

• Interdependence in decision making. A small number of big companies in an oligopoly can’t operate independently. For example, the decision of one firm to launch an extensive advertising campaign will provoke countermoves. Since firms in an oligopoly offer homogenous products, they all influence the prices and output and can’t ignore the actions of their competitors.
• Price rigidity. Each company has to stick to the price in this market system. If one company cuts down the price, competitors will make a more drastic reduction, leading to a price war and letting no one benefit.
• Conflicting attitudes. In this market structure, you can find two perspectives. In the first one, companies understand that competition can’t bring them benefits and try to cooperate to maximize their revenue. In the second one, the idea of increasing profit leads to conflict and antagonism.
• Monopoly power. A limited number of companies in an oligopoly with a significant market share enables these firms to control the price and output. Therefore, this market structure has some monopoly power.
• Advertising. It is a powerful instrument with the help of which a company in an oligopoly can start an aggressive campaign to capture a big part of the market. In this scenario, other firms will have to use defensive advertising.

Now it’s time to move to the pros and cons of this market structure.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Oligopolies

Companies in oligopolies are large, and they set standards to control prices and competition. You might have asked yourself why oligopolies are so widespread, especially in mass media, the tech industry, airlines, entertainment, and social media platforms. The answer is simple — because of the advantages that this market structure brings to businesses. They include the following pros:

• low level of competition;
• high potential to receive big profits;
• a great demand for products and services controlled through oligopolies;
• a limited number of companies makes it easier for customers to compare and choose products;
• more competitive prices;
• better quality of products and services since brands need to survive in the market;
• better customer support;
• price stability within the market;
• more informative ads.

However, everything has drawbacks, and oligopolies have them too. The major cons are:

• limited customer choice;
• high barriers to entry;
• companies are not interested in innovations since the level of competition is low.

Now that you know the advantages and disadvantages, let’s proceed to the next section to learn how an oligopoly works.

How does an oligopoly work?

In oligopolies, collusion processes are sequential. They are necessary to define the price and output or boost the profit. That’s why this market structure is somehow similar to a monopoly — it consists of a few big companies that collude to obtain the necessary results.

By increasing the price, they have an opportunity to receive higher profits and produce a smaller amount of goods. However, collusive oligopolies are risky since the most efficient companies will break ranks by reducing their prices. These firms break the agreement mainly to increase their market share.

A threat of defection, low level of coordination, and illegal price-fixing are the factors that deter collusion. That’s why these companies often face the possibility that one of them can agree to collude, then break the agreement, and undercut the revenue.

Now that you know how this market structure works, we’ll proceed to the difference between an oligopoly and a monopoly.

Oligopoly vs. Monopoly

Let’s review the features of these two market systems to make the difference between them clear.

In an oligopoly, there are two or more companies that control the market. In this market structure, no firm can keep the others from influencing the industry and offering goods that differ a little bit. Since it doesn’t have any superior force, firms prefer to collude rather than compete. This strategy makes it extremely difficult for other players to enter the market.

In a monopoly, there’s one dominant firm that sells goods or provides services. A company in this market structure has enough authority and power to prevent competitors from entering the marketplace. There might be various reasons that make it difficult to enter the industry, such as technology, patents, government regulation, or capital requirements.

In a monopoly, we can find only one seller, a price maker who can set high prices and reduce the choice for customers. Nevertheless, buyers will pay the price if there are no substitutes available.

Let’s move to the next section, where we’ll walk you through the types of an oligopoly.

Types of Oligopoly

Further, we’ll review four main types of this marketing structure based on the relationships between companies within the market:

• perfect oligopoly implies that companies offer homogenous products (for example, the steel and aluminum industry);
• imperfect oligopoly means that firms manufacture differentiated products (for instance, soft drinks and cigarettes);
• collusive oligopoly requires companies to cooperate in setting the price and output;
• non-collusive oligopoly appears when firms within an oligopoly market compete with each other.

Next, we’ll discuss the pricing strategies of oligopolies, so let’s dive in.

Pricing Strategies of Oligopolies

Companies in oligopolies can use predatory pricing, which means keeping prices very low, sometimes even under the full cost of production. This strategy is used to force competitors out of the market. Besides, firms also implement a limit-pricing strategy to hinder new companies from entering the market. In this scenario, firms reduce the price sufficiently and make it unprofitable for other players to enter.

You can also encounter cost-plus pricing in this market structure. It’s a strategy in which the price of a good is defined by adding a specific markup to a product’s unit cost. It is useful for oligopolies and firms that manufacture different products since a few companies that dominate the market often share the same expenses. One of the examples is petrol retailers. Nevertheless, there is always a risk because competitors can adopt a more flexible method to obtain a bigger market share.

If you want to compete in an oligopoly market, you should know the main peculiarities of this market system, which we’ll discuss next.

How to Compete in the Oligopoly Market

The interdependence that exists within an oligopoly determines the way companies compete. The decisions on the price and output of the firms within this market system depend on the behavior of other companies. Businesses that operate under the rules of an oligopoly can’t act independently. They usually take into account the actions of their closest competitors when making decisions.

Let’s take Texaco, a company that operates in petrol retailing, for example. Say, the company wants to get a bigger market share by cutting down the price. If their competitors Shell and BP find out about this, they can reduce their prices as well.

The way firms compete in an oligopoly depends on their objectives, the nature of their goods or services, and the contestability of the market. Some firms compete on the price, and others try to enhance the quality of their products.

When trying to demonstrate their benefits to the leads and customers, oligopolists prefer to implement non-price competition. It involves distinguishing products or services to increase sales by using methods other than price.

Now that you know how companies compete, it’s time to discover how to enter this market.

How to Enter the Oligopoly Market

Oligopolists always maintain their dominance in the market and establish high barriers to entry, which makes it hard for new players to enter. When giving thought to entering this market structure, remember that there will be obstacles, such as economies of scale and patents, government regulations, and expensive technology. Companies need to overcome these and other challenges if they want to be a part of an oligopoly.

However, this does not have to discourage but motivate you to develop a well-thought-out strategy. Let’s dive into several examples to help you grab some inspiration.

Examples of Oligopolies

Nowadays, you can find different oligopolies in various industries. If you are curious about corporations that belong to specific market structures, we’ll walk you through some of them.

• Entertainment. Hollywood and its movie production studios have been an oligopoly for a long time. Disney, Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal, and Sony are the biggest movie studios based on their market share.
• Airlines. The airline industry in the United States can also be referred to as an oligopoly since four leading domestic airlines dominate the market. They are American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines.
• Search engines. People use search engines every day for their personal needs. There are around ten most popular search engines in the world. However, only a few of them dominate the market. The two major search engines are Google and Bing. Google is a leader among search engines and the most popular search engine. In February 2021, Google had 86.6% of the search market share, while Bing had 6.7%.
• Social media. As of 2021, there are 3.96 billion users of social media worldwide. Today, we can’t even imagine our lives without social media platforms that dominate the market, like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Facebook is considered the world’s biggest social media platform because it has 2.45 billion monthly active users.
• Big technology. When we talk about oligopolies in big tech, we usually mean operating systems for phones, laptops, or PCs. Among smartphones, customers can choose between Apple iOS and Android. If you need a computer or laptop, the choice isn’t too big either since Apple and Microsoft Windows are the most popular and influential.
• Automobile manufacturers. Although the world knows dozens of automobile manufacturers, and people can choose any of them, the situation is quite different in the US. General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Stellantis North America are the largest automakers that represent an oligopoly.

You can see multiple examples of oligopoly in your everyday life: platforms you use for communication, operating systems of the smartphones or laptops you buy, and search engines you know. Now you can easily distinguish this market structure from others.

Resources:

1. This article defines the term and explains how oligopolies work.
2. This article provides readers with current examples.
3. This article explains why oligopolies exist.

Last Updated: 22.03.2023