Resource Guides: Company Information: Finding Competitors

Market Share

Industry profiles often note "market share" of companies (sometimes products too). Note what is being covered -- the geography (U.S.? North America?). If it's a common product sold in supermarkets, is the data from supermarkets - or any place the product is sold? The market share has many definitions; these sources can provide some data for your research:

IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
Industry market research from the United States, including industry reports by NAICS code and specialty reports.
Business Source Complete (Business Searching Interface) This link opens in a new window
Select "Industry Profiles" from right frame.
The Business Searching Interface (BSI) is EBSCO's highly focused user interface created especially for the business searcher. Business Searching Interface provides an easy way to both browse and search for country economic data, company profiles, industry information and market research available in Business Source Ultimate.

How significant is your target company in its industry? The following 2 sources are best bets to start.

Passport This link opens in a new window
Detailed brand share data. Premier database from Euromonitor for data and analysis on companies, countries, consumers, and industries worldwide.
Gale Directory Library This link opens in a new window
Includes Market Share Reporter - charts from news sources -- as well as the directory: Brands And Their Companies.

Further, news about your company, in periodical articles and newspapers, may note the market share too. Yet, the phrasing might be different.

If you know the product(s), consider searching for the product name and add a phrase such as "market share" .
Or, in Advanced Search, in the first search box enter the product name, and in the second search box, add more than one phrase, for example: "market share" or "share of the market"

check key Company News page for the top recommended online resources.

Business Rankings

How does your target company compare to others? While a company or industry profile often has brief information, consider also checking the key sources listed below.

Flipster This link opens in a new window
Fortune magazine annually has the Fortune 500 list of largest U.S. companies. Also includes Forbes magazine - from time to time, it has rankings.
American Scientist, Architectural Digest, Artforum International, Atlantic Monthly, Baumeister, Best Business schools, Black E O E Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Bust, Career Mastered, Consumer Reports, Discover, DIVERSEability, Diversity in Steam, ENR, Entrepreneur, Essence, Forbes, Fortune, Hispanic Outlook on Education, House Beautiful, Latino Leaders, MIT Technology Review, Motor Trend, National Geographic, Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine, New Yorker, Out, Oxford American, Time.
Bizjournals.com This link opens in a new window
For each of the 43 regional business periodicals, an annual "Book of Lists" of rankings is available.
Please note access is limited to 1000 GT registered users, the Library may de-register accounts that are inactive.

Also, "trade periodicals" - what executives read for news in their industry - might have annual top/ranked lists of companies. Or, another magazine could compile a ranking. For example, Newsweek lists America's Greenest Companies. Check the "Best Bets" for business databases.

Addresses, Lists, and Contact Information

Create customized lists of potential target companies with these online resources:

Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new window
Over 100 million U.S. and Canadian businesses; 400 million worldwide. Can select by industry code, geographies, size of business, and more. Typically lists key executives. Also has sales estimates.
Coupling Mergent's expertise in developing products for the reference marketplace with D&B's private company database, Mergent Intellect offers new and existing clients a unique opportunity to access private and public U.S and international business data, industry news, facts and figures, executive contact information, the ability to access industry profiles and much more.
Reference USA (Data Axle) This link opens in a new window
Over 90 million U.S. businesses, 2 million Canadian businesses, and 2 million new businesses. Can select by key word (or, industry codes), geographies (metro area, city, etc.), size of business, and more. Key executives listed. Subscription also includes modules for: New Businesses, historical businesses (1997 to current); and, Canadian businesses.
Please note the number of downloads per search is 500. If your search yields 2,000 results, you will need to do four (4) downloads.
Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
For public companies. On a company page, select the "Competitors" tab. Or, in Advanced Search, can select by industry code, geographies (state, city), size of business, and more. Key executives listed.
PrivCo This link opens in a new window
Covers more than 400,000 U.S. private companies. Can "filter" by key word, geographies (city, state, region, zip code), size of business, and more. Founders often listed.
Coverage of hundreds of thousands of private companies, and our singular focus on private companies, investors, and deals (venture capital, M&A and private equity) enables us to extract, aggregate, and provide the most accurate and comprehensive private company data available. Users can search company profiles, or build lists based on criteria such as location, size, industry and more. We focus primarily on US-based companies, but do have coverage of thousands of International companies as well.

ThomasNet
Manufacturers and suppliers in North America. Create free account for full access.
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Previously, issued in print editions as Thomas Register. Library has 1905-2006 in microfilm - offsite, Library Services Center - TS199.T45

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Market Share

Business Rankings

Addresses, Lists, and Contact Information

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