---
title: Shrink a market
date: "2006-04-12T12:00:00Z"
categories:
  - links
wp_id: 364
description: Grow your business by shrinking the total market for competitors. Capture revenue by inflicting asymmetrical pain, a strategy used by Microsoft to take a dollar for themselves while removing six from their rivals' bottom lines.
keywords: [market strategy, competition, asymmetry, microsoft, revenue, market share]
---

Grow by [shrinking a market](http://redeye.firstround.com/2006/04/shrink_a_market.html).

> For every dollar of revenue Microsoft made, it took away six dollars of revenue from their competitors. Every dollar of Microsoft's gain caused an asymmetrical amount of pain in the marketplace. They made money by shrinking the market.