A better way of defining (near) monopolies is through market power [1]. It gets at the heart of the matter for which 'monopoly' is just a proxy - the ability of

A better way of defining (near) monopolies is through market power [1]. It gets at the heart of the matter for which 'monopoly' is just a proxy - the ability of a company to shape the market, even if it has competitors. For example, Microsoft never once had monopoly on operating systems... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_power