Market share facts for kids
Market share is a super important idea in business and marketing. It's basically how much of a certain product or service a company sells compared to all the products or services sold in that same market.
Imagine a big pie. The whole pie is the total market for something, like video games. If one company, say "GameCo," sells half of all the video games, then GameCo has a 50% market share.
You can figure out market share in a few ways:
- By money: How much money a company makes from selling a product, divided by the total money everyone spends on that product.
- By units: How many items a company sells, divided by the total number of items sold by all companies.
To find out a company's market share, businesses often do market research. This helps them understand the total size of the market and where they stand.
Increasing market share is a big goal for most businesses. When a company has a larger market share, it often means they are doing well. It also helps them deal with bigger economic changes, like if the economy slows down.
Market shares can change over time. Things like new products, big news events, or even political changes can make a company's market share go up or down.
In the world of money, a "share" is a small piece of ownership in a company. When you own a share, you become a part-owner of that company. These shares are also called stocks.
Companies issue shares to raise money. People can buy these shares directly from the company or from a stock market.
When you own a share, you can make money in two main ways:
- Dividends: Some companies pay out a small part of their profits to shareholders. This payment is called a dividend.
- Capital gain: If you sell your share for more money than you paid for it, you make a profit called a capital gain.
However, there's also a risk. If you sell your share for less than you paid, you'll have a capital loss.
The price of a company's stock shows what investors think about the company. If investors believe a company will grow fast, its stock price might be high. Stock prices are also affected by company news and overall market trends. Companies that are publicly traded have to share their financial updates regularly.
Here are some key things about owning stocks:
- Owning a stock means you are a partial owner of the company. You might even get to vote on certain company decisions.
- Historically, stocks have often grown in value over many years.
- But remember, there's no guarantee you'll make money. Stocks can lose value, even over a long time.
Related pages
Images for kids
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Airlines like Swiss and SAS compete for customers flying between Europe and Japan.
See also
In Spanish: Cuota de mercado para niños
