"The Rule of Three" and What it Means for You

Think about this: in just about any given market sector you’ll end up finding that only three companies dominate. In aviation, United, Delta and American Airlines control about 70% of the market share. The remaining 30% is held by all the other carriers. In telecom, AT&T, Sprint/T-Mobile, and Verizon control almost 100% of the market! I can go on … ok I will:

– In high-end retail: Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, and Saks Fifth

– In personal computing: Lenovo (formerly IBM), HP, and Dell

– Burger fast-food: McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendy’s

– Social media: Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp (yes its all one company), Twitter, and Snapchat

– Pay-TV television: AT&T, Comcast, Charter Communications

Some of these companies (like AT&T) hold dominant market share in multiple industries, like television and telecommunications.

Wireless carrier market share as of 2018. The top three carriers (T-Mobile and Sprint will soon be one company) is almost 100%.

We call these tripartite arrangements oligopolies. Unlike…