3 ms·

And yet the German auto market is a particularly rigid oligopoly regardless, dominated by their domestic auto giants. BMW, Daimler, VW all stuffed into one $4.

And yet the German auto market is a particularly rigid oligopoly regardless, dominated by their domestic auto giants. BMW, Daimler, VW all stuffed into one $4.3t economy. It'd be like if GM and Ford were ten times larger than they are in relation to the size of the US economy. Scaled up to the US economy in size, those three would be up around $3 trillion in sales (five to six times the size of Walmart). So they're co-monopolies, towering over the German economy, sharing it all with one or two other giant German companies. I suppose that's nice of them, sharing is caring.

allendoerfer 5y ago
The car companies are publicly traded. OP was talking about giant family owned corporations. You should watch out for Schwarz especially. Walmart tried to enter the German market and failed. Lidl/Aldi are expanding everywhere. I would say they are the only example where the German efficiency stereotype is actually true.
- merb 5y ago
  > The car companies are publicly traded well kinda. bmw basically is owned to 46% by two people and they control it. vw the same, most voting stock is in the hands Porsche Automobil Holding SE, basically owned by wolfang porsche, his ancestor was ferdinand porsche. yeah on paper they are traded. but not controlled. (mercedes is different here) but a lot corporations in germany are at least still controlled by descendants