Comments on: The 1% Market Share Myth Debunked

By: Gary Reid » Blog Archive » When 1% Market Share is Enough social media optimization and digital marketing

Tue, 22 May 2007 11:26:56 +0000

[...] for Bebo it can only go to fuel the 1% myth that haunts so many business plans, some have tried to debunk this myth Sure, 1% of a huge market could be a lot, but 1% is a piddly number. There’s a difference between [...]

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:34:40 +0000

You’re right, Ben the 1% Market Share myth is one of the things that created the .com bubble in the first place, IMO.

By: One By One Media » Using FeedBurner goodies to promote your blog

One By One Media » Using FeedBurner goodies to promote your blog — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 22:12:48 +0000

[...] Around here, Ben is the king of Digg. Seems like he just has a knack for writing super-diggable posts. This is, of course, very cool. This morning Ben had another winner on his B5 blog Startup Spark. This afternoon the e-mails are going around the group to digg it for him. I did it this morning. I’m not saying this to brag, I just noticed that in Ben’s FeedFlare his Digg link had diggs on it. Click, click, dugg. [...]

By: Ron E.

Ron E. — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 21:59:15 +0000

Great post Ben! I’ve seen this “1% rule” being applied to many small businesses, and after some time they usually get to the same conclusion you did: It isn’t easy to get 1% of the market.

As well, I’d like to remember that market share information is always tricky and depends on the metrics used to measure, not to mention WHO is measuring.

Great Post,
Ron E.
http://brandcurve.com

By: The 1% Market Share Myth Debunked « Tons of Fresh News

The 1% Market Share Myth Debunked « Tons of Fresh News — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 21:52:43 +0000

[...] March 9, 2007 at 9:49 pm · Filed under Uncategorized The 1% Market Share Myth Debunked Startups are often fond of saying something like “ “If we only get 1% of that market, our company will be doing $5 million in sales, easily. And we’re being conservative. Just 1%!” The only problem is, that’s a myth… here’s why.[news] [world & business] [business & finance] [...]

By: Adam Ferguson

Adam Ferguson — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 21:16:47 +0000

Good points all around. Guy Kawasaki discusses this in ‘The Art of the Start’ as well. He makes the same point about selling soda to 1% of the population in China.

His point was also that it’s a stupid thing to say to VC’s. Good post.

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 19:25:49 +0000

I like that one Bill. I once heard someone say that the funny thing about math is that it is fairly easy to prove just about whatever you want to hear.

My high school algebra teacher showed us how, using basic algebra of course, that 1 can equal 2.

By: Bill D'Alessandro

Bill D'Alessandro — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:06:14 +0000

OK, it’s still early, my math was off by a factor of 10, but the point still comes across…

- Bill

By: Bill D'Alessandro

Bill D'Alessandro — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:05:09 +0000

Great post Ben, this is the judgement error called “Chinese Math” – basically because people believe that if they sell a $1 widget to 1% of the billion people in China, they’ll make $100 million in sales.

The judgement error is that 100 million customers are nearly impossible to get, just because the market is huge, the customers are still hard to get.

You can read up more in this article:
http://www.businesspundit.com/50226711/please_stop_with_your_chinese_math.php