An oligopoly is when a small number of producers dominate an industry. The word “oligopoly” comes from the Greek words for “few,” and “to sell.” In most markets, there are many sellers competing against each other. However, in an oligopolistic market, there are only a few sellers that control the entire market share. To answer the question: how many producers dominate the market? we must know what defines an oligopolistic market to determine what is considered too few or too large of a number before this can be answered.
If the oligopoly is defined as a market with only one producer in it, then there are no competitors and this would not be considered an oligopolistic market. It should also be noted that when the government controls all of the producers in industry through regulation, they can make sure to keep competition at bay by creating barriers to entry for those new entrants into their marketplace due to restrictive regulation or laws. For example: if the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) were able to limit cable providers from expanding beyond 60 miles outside of any given city’s limits (a policy called “local franchising”), thereby ensuring that other potential providers cannot operate within local markets without acquiring these franchises first before getting started. This means customer choice will decrease as these regulatory barriers will only allow the current cable providers to serve customers in their areas.
In an oligopoly market, there are few producers dominating the marketplace (i.e., a handful of companies). This is because there are either high entry barriers or government regulations that prevent competition from arising. An example of how this could happen: if you live in Chicago and your internet provider offers service that doesn’t work well when it rains – let’s say Comcast- then they’re likely one of two things: monopolistic, meaning that no other company can offer similar service regardless; or oligopolistic, where maybe AT&T has failed to build out infrastructure due to red tape with local franchise regulators. Either way, customer choice decreases as others are prevented from entering the market.
The Russian oligopoly:
A lot of oil and gas production in Russia is controlled by a handful of companies, including Gazprom, Rosneft, Lukoil, and Tatneft. This means that there are few producers dominating the marketplace when it comes to these types of products.
A car or truck oligopoly:
The automotive industry has always been an area where competition was limited for various reasons – high entry barriers like expensive development costs; government regulations limiting what type of cars can be sold; legacy issues with established brands who have exclusive agreements on parts distribution channels. These factors make it difficult for smaller players to enter the game even if they might offer something different than their larger rivals because customers don’t have a compelling reason to choose them.
A few giants dominate the fuel oligopoly:
ExxonMobil produces about 60% of US oil and gas.
Chevron has 50%.
Phillips 66 is at 12%, Hess Corporation is at 11%, ConocoPhillips, BP America, and Royal Dutch Shell are between that range too. The rest of the companies produce less than one percent combined. That means there are few producers dominating the market when it comes to these types of products.” Two big factors here – high entry barriers like expensive development costs; government regulations limiting what type of cars can be sold; legacy issues with established brands who have exclusive agreements on parts distribution channels – make it difficult for smaller players to enter the market, so it’s unlikely there will be another major player in the US.”
