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I am looking for an English word to explain the following business situation.

A new product or service is offered to the market. There are many small companies that start to provide this service or product. After a while, only a few of them survives. Other companies are either bought out or closed down. The market has xyz.

What is the best word to use here in the place of xyz?

The first word that pops up in my mind is to converge, but I believe that there is a better word. However, I cannot remember it at the moment.

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3 Answers 3

up vote 8 down vote accepted

The word is consolidated - the market has consolidated

For example, from PV Magazine of September 2012:

the solar industry is set for major consolidation ... The solar consolidation period is still not over ... One of a group of panelists considering the potential impact of mergers and acquisitions, Arno characterized the solar industry as being in a peculiar situation of "profitless prosperity" now, so the coming wave of consolidation "should be a welcome thing which we accept as part of the growing pains of an industry that will survive."

Note that this is subtly different from tchrist's answer of "mature". Either might be right, depending on the context.

At the end of the PV market's current consolidation, it still won't be mature, as it's going to expand by an order of magnitude over the next decade. But there will be fewer manufacturers, due to mergers, bankruptcies and acquisitions, so it will have consolidated.

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What you’re looking for is a mature market, one that has stopped expanding:


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You are looking for the word shakeout.

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