oligopoly 復習
楽天が、携帯電話市場に進出することを発表しました。
Rakuten announces foray into saturated Japanese cellphone market
E-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. on Thursday said it aims to become Japan’s fourth mobile carrier in a move that threatens to disrupt the cellular phone market oligopoly.
In a statement, the company headed by billionaire entrepreneur Hiroshi Mikitani said it will be applying to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry for an allocation of wireless spectrum in January at the earliest.
If accepted, it plans to procure as much as \600 billion to invest in base stations and will aim to acquire at least 15 million subscribers.
Rakuten, which has already entered the domestic market as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO)— which rents space from mobile networks to offer discount rates — said a successful launch will give it a new growth engine and allow it to become “one of the few companies in the world that can provide a comprehensive package of services in e-commerce, fintech (financial technology), digital content, and mobile communications.”
The move is bound to create waves in a wireless carrier market that has been dominated by three telecommunications giants — NTT Docomo Inc., KDDI Corp. and technology mogul Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group Corp.
本日取り上げるのは、"oligopoly"/ɑ̀ləgɑ́p(ə)li/です。『ジーニアス英和辞典』第4版(大修館)で調べてみると、「寡占(市場)、少数独占(市場)」とありました。”poly”には、「多量の、多数の」という意味があり、「いくつかの会社が多数を占める」というニュアンスが現れています。また、「独占」という意味の”monopoly”は、「一つが多数を占める」となります。LDOCEでは、”the control of all or most of a business activity by very few companies, so that other organizations cannot easily compete with them”と定義されています。(Akim)
