Market Share, Explained

Q What’s “market share”? — M.R., Venice, Florida

A It refers to the percentage of a market that a product, service or company commands, and it’s a useful measure to track when researching companies or industries. Think about smartphones, for example. If many of your friends use iPhones, you might assume that Apple enjoys the highest market share in the category. But actually, as of the end of March, Samsung had that honor, with a 20.5 percent global share; followed by Apple, with 14.1 percent; and the Chinese company Huawei, with 10.4 percent. (That means that 20.5 percent of smartphones sold worldwide in the last quarter were Samsung devices.) It’s also good to pay attention to trends and growth rates. Apple may be in second place, but it gained share from the end of 2017 to the end of March 2018, rising to that 14.1 percent from 13.7 percent. Samsung’s share shrank from 20.8 percent to 20.5 percent. As another example, the U.S. market share leader in ice cream brands last year was private label brands, with 20 percent of the market, followed by Breyers, with 9.2 percent; Ben & Jerry’s, with 8.7 percent; and Haagen-Dazs, with 8.4 percent. ***

Q Why can’t I find stock listings in the newspaper on Mondays? — C.C., Seattle

A The stock markets in America are closed on weekends, so there is no action to report on Mondays. Don’t think you have to follow stocks’ daily moves, though. It’s more important to keep up with how a company is performing than how its stock is moving. Great fortunes can be amassed by buying into companies you’ve researched well and believe in and then simply hanging on for the long term.

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