Starbucks competes with four groups, in the categories its own 10-K names: specialty coffee shops, quick-service restaurants that sell coffee (such as McDonald’s and Restaurant Brands International’s Tim Hortons), fast-growing drive-thru chains such as Dutch Bros, and ready-to-drink coffee. Starbucks is the biggest by revenue, with $37.2 billion in fiscal 2025, but it earned a 7.9 percent operating margin that year, far below the heavily franchised McDonald’s.
Starbucks' 10-K names specialty coffee retailers and shops as its primary competitors, chosen on product quality, brand, service, convenience and price.
02
Quick-service restaurants
It also faces direct competition from large quick-service chains. McDonald's had 45,356 restaurants at year-end 2025; Restaurant Brands International, owner of Tim Hortons, had over 33,000.
03
Drive-thru challengers
Dutch Bros, a drive-thru coffee chain, had 1,136 shops in 25 states at the end of 2025 and grew revenue to $1.6 billion that year, from $1.3 billion.
04
Coffee at home and in a can
Starbucks also competes with packaged coffee and the ready-to-drink market, where it sells its own products through partners and licensees.
What changed in 2025-26
Back to Starbucks
Under chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, Starbucks reported global comparable store sales up 7.9 percent in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, driven mostly by more transactions, and a GAAP operating margin of 10.5 percent.
China becomes a joint venture
In November 2025 Starbucks agreed that Boyu Capital would take up to 60 percent of its China retail business, with Starbucks keeping 40 percent and licensing the brand. The conversion to a licensed joint venture took place in the third quarter of fiscal 2026.
More licensed than owned
At the end of that quarter Starbucks had 41,304 stores, 33 percent company-operated and 67 percent licensed, which moves it closer to the asset-light model of its rivals.
Rivals' margins
McDonald’s earned $12.4 billion of operating income on $26.9 billion of revenue in 2025; RBI earned $2.2 billion on $9.4 billion; Dutch Bros $161 million on $1.6 billion, according to their 10-Ks.
Starbucks vs listed rivals (latest fiscal year, from each 10-K)
Starbucks (fiscal 2025)
Revenue and operating income$37.2 billion; $2.9 billion, 7.9 percent margin
Stores or restaurants40,990
McDonald's (2025)
Revenue and operating income$26.9 billion; $12.4 billion
Stores or restaurants45,356, about 95 percent franchised
Restaurant Brands International (2025)
Revenue and operating income$9.4 billion; $2.2 billion
Stores or restaurantsOver 33,000, incl. 6,232 Tim Hortons
Dutch Bros (2025)
Revenue and operating income$1.6 billion; $161 million
Stores or restaurants1,136 (811 company-operated)
What it means for you
For investors: compare margins with the ownership model in mind; franchisors report less revenue but far higher margins.
Watch transactions, not just prices: Starbucks' recent growth came mostly from more visits.
For operators: drive-thru and mobile convenience are where quick-service rivals and Dutch Bros press hardest.
Read the China joint venture as a model shift: licensed stores bring royalties and product sales instead of store revenue.
For brand builders: Starbucks defends price with experience, so service consistency is the asset to protect.
The Business Engineer lens
The coffee market splits between companies that run the experience themselves and those that franchise convenience. Starbucks is moving part of its footprint to licensing, as in China, while betting that service and the third place still justify a premium when ordering is increasingly digital and automated.
By its own 10-K, specialty coffee shops are its primary competitors, with large quick-service chains, such as McDonald's and Tim Hortons, as direct competitors in coffee.
Is McDonald's bigger than Starbucks?
By restaurants yes (45,356 vs 40,990), but Starbucks had more revenue: $37.2 billion in fiscal 2025 against $26.9 billion for McDonald's in 2025.
Why is Starbucks' margin lower than McDonald's?
Starbucks operates many stores itself, so it books their costs; McDonald's franchises about 95 percent of restaurants and earns rent and royalties.
What happened to Starbucks in China?
It converted China retail into a licensed joint venture with Boyu Capital in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, keeping a 40 percent interest.
The complete explainer, cleaned up and reformatted for mobile.
In short
Among listed rivals, McDonald’s is the most profitable ($12.4B of operating income on $26.9B in 2025, against Starbucks’ $2.9B on $37.2B); Restaurant Brands International (Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs) runs over 33,000 restaurants; Dutch Bros is small (1,136 shops) but grew revenue 28% in 2025.
How we source: figures on this page come from the company’s own filings (SEC 10-K, 10-Q and earnings releases, or its annual report), with the period stated next to each number. Last refreshed October 2026. Our methodology.
Starbucks vs its listed competitors
Starbucks vs rivals: biggest sales, thinnest margin. Source: Forms 10-K (SEC EDGAR): Starbucks fiscal 2025 (revenue, operating income, store data, competition), McDonald’s 2025 (revenue, operating income, 95% franchised), Restaurant Brands International 2025 (revenue, operating income), Dutch Bros 2025 (revenue, operating income, shops). Margins calculated. Positions and bars to scale. Analysis by The Business Engineer.
Company
Revenue
Op. margin*
Units
Starbucks (FY25)
$37.2B
7.9%
40,990
McDonald’s (2025)
$26.9B
46.1%
45,356
RBI (2025)
$9.4B
23.3%
33,000+
Dutch Bros (2025)
$1.6B
9.8%
1,136
Source: Latest 10-K of each company (SEC EDGAR). *Calculated.
What drives the difference
Operator vs franchisor. Starbucks runs about half its stores itself; McDonald’s and RBI franchise almost everything, so they book rent and royalties at much higher margins.
Growth. Dutch Bros had 811 company-operated and 325 franchised shops at the end of 2025 (10-K).
What to watch
China: retail moved to a licensed joint venture in Q3 fiscal 2026, so most stores are now licensed (27,691 of 41,304) (Q3 fiscal 2026 release).
Traffic: global comparable sales +7.9% in Q3 FY26.
Margin: 10.5% operating margin in Q3 FY26 vs 7.9% for FY25.
Earlier analysis and background (pre-2026 figures)
The text below is the earlier version of this page. Its figures refer to earlier periods and some were corrected above; the current, sourced figures are in the sections above.
Competitive Landscape
Starbucks vs. Competitors
Key players competing across Starbucks’s core markets
Key Competitive Overlaps
β
Dunkin’
Both operate in the coffee and quick-service restaurant market, competing for coffee-loving customers and breakfast seekers.
β
McDonald’s
Both compete in the coffee market, with McDonald’s offering specialty coffee beverages and a diverse menu for breakfast and snacks.
Correction (11 Oct 2026): an earlier section on this page, “Starbucks Competitors in the AI Era”, made unsourced claims and predictions; it has been removed.
Starbucks is a multinational coffee chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker in 1971. From a single and very humble bean roasting store in Pike Place Market, the company is now a global giant that ended the third quarter of fiscal 2026 with 41,304 stores around the world. This large global footprint obviously increases the competition for Starbucks in many different markets. The coffee industry itself is also highly competitive, with established players including McDonaldβs and Dunkinβ Donuts.
Updated 6 October 2026: we refreshed 15 figures on this page, now taken from SEC EDGAR filings, finance.yahoo.com and thecaterer.com. Anything we could not check against a current source keeps its original year, so you can see how old it is.
Latest figures · checked 6 October 2026
Starbucks ended the third quarter of fiscal 2026 with 41,304 stores after opening 175 net new stores; 33% were company-operated and 67% licensed. SEC EDGAR filings
Starbucks’ Q3 fiscal 2026 consolidated net revenues fell 1% to $9.3 billion, and global comparable store sales rose 7.9%. SEC EDGAR filings
McDonald’s had 45,356 restaurants at year-end 2025, and approximately 95% of them were franchised. SEC EDGAR filings
McDonald’s reported total revenues of $26,885 million in 2025, including $16,548 million in revenues from franchised restaurants. SEC EDGAR filings
As of December 31, 2025, Tim Hortons had 6,232 restaurants in 21 countries and territories, and $8,248 million in global system-wide sales in 2025. SEC EDGAR filings
In May 2026, Dunkin’ had more than 14,200 restaurants across nearly 40 markets. finance.yahoo.com
In February 2026, Costa Coffee had more than 2,700 branches across the UK and Ireland, according to The Caterer. thecaterer.com
Description: A global coffee and doughnut chain that offers a range of coffee beverages, doughnuts, and breakfast items. Dunkin’ competes with Starbucks in the coffee and quick-service restaurant market.
Key Insights: Dunkin’ provides a variety of coffee beverages, doughnuts, and breakfast options, focusing on convenience and affordability.
Competitive Overlap: Both operate in the coffee and quick-service restaurant market, competing for coffee-loving customers and breakfast seekers.
Differentiation: Dunkin’s emphasis on doughnuts and breakfast items, as well as its value-oriented approach.
McDonald’s
Description: A multinational fast-food chain that offers coffee, including specialty coffee beverages, along with a range of breakfast and snack items. McDonald’s competes with Starbucks in the coffee and fast-food market.
Key Insights: McDonald’s serves coffee beverages, breakfast items, and snacks, with a strong emphasis on affordability and convenience.
Competitive Overlap: Both compete in the coffee market, with McDonald’s offering specialty coffee beverages and a diverse menu for breakfast and snacks.
Differentiation: McDonald’s focus on affordability and its extensive global presence.
Costa Coffee
Description: A British multinational coffeehouse chain known for its coffee, sandwiches, and pastries. Costa Coffee competes with Starbucks in the coffeehouse and specialty coffee market.
Key Insights: Costa Coffee offers a wide range of coffee beverages, sandwiches, and baked goods, with a focus on quality and sustainability.
Differentiation: Costa Coffee’s emphasis on quality and sustainability, as well as its European heritage.
Tim Hortons
Description: A Canadian fast-food restaurant chain known for its coffee, doughnuts, and breakfast items. Tim Hortons competes with Starbucks in the coffee and quick-service restaurant market.
Key Insights: Tim Hortons offers coffee, doughnuts, and breakfast options, with a focus on Canadian hospitality and affordability.
Competitive Overlap: Both operate in the coffee and quick-service restaurant market, serving coffee and breakfast items to customers.
Differentiation: Tim Hortons’ Canadian heritage and its emphasis on affordable coffee and breakfast.
Peet’s Coffee
Description: An American specialty coffee roaster and retailer known for its premium coffee beans and coffeehouse locations. Peet’s Coffee competes with Starbucks in the specialty coffee and coffeehouse market.
Description: A fast-casual restaurant chain that offers a range of bakery items, sandwiches, salads, and coffee beverages. Panera Bread competes with Starbucks in the coffee and fast-casual dining market.
Key Insights: Panera Bread provides coffee, bakery items, and a menu of soups, sandwiches, and salads, with an emphasis on healthy and fresh ingredients.
Competitive Overlap: Both compete in the coffee and fast-casual dining market, offering coffee and a menu of food items to customers.
Differentiation: Panera Bread’s focus on fresh and healthy food options in addition to coffee.
Description: An American doughnut and coffeehouse chain known for its doughnuts and coffee beverages. Krispy Kreme competes with Starbucks in the coffee and doughnut market.
Key Insights: Krispy Kreme offers a range of doughnuts, coffee beverages, and specialty drinks, focusing on sweet treats and coffee pairings.
Competitive Overlap: Both compete in the coffee and doughnut market, offering coffee beverages and doughnuts to customers.
Differentiation: Krispy Kreme’s reputation for freshly made doughnuts and sweet indulgence.
Seattle’s Best Coffee
Description: A coffee brand and coffeehouse chain known for its coffee beans and coffee beverages. Seattle’s Best Coffee competes with Starbucks in the coffee and specialty coffee market.
Key Insights: Seattle’s Best Coffee provides premium coffee beans and coffee beverages, with an emphasis on quality and flavor profiles.
Differentiation: Seattle’s Best Coffee’s reputation for premium coffee beans and flavor variety.
Starbucks is a retail company that sells beverages (primarily consisting of coffee-related drinks) and food. In 2023, Starbucks had 44% of company-operated stores vs. 56% of licensed stores which might make you think Starbucks is a franchise business, when in reality most of its revenue (nearly 82% in 2023) came from company-operated stores, thus making Starbucks a chain business model.
Key numbersChecked 6 October 2026
$26,885 millionMcDonald's reported total revenues of $26,885 million in 2025, including $16,548 million in revenues fromβ¦SEC EDGAR filings
41,304 storesStarbucks ended the third quarter of fiscal 2026 with 41,304 stores after opening 175 net new stores; 33%β¦SEC EDGAR filings
1%Starbucks' Q3 fiscal 2026 consolidated net revenues fell 1% to $9.3 billion, and global comparable storeβ¦SEC EDGAR filings
45,356McDonald's had 45,356 restaurants at year-end 2025, and approximately 95% of them were franchised.SEC EDGAR filings
In one lineTraditional coffee chains like Dunkin', Costa Coffee, and Tim Hortons are rapidly integrating AI technologies to compete with Starbucks' digital dominance.
FourWeekMBABusiness EngineerAt a glance
From a single and very humble bean roasting store in Pike Place Market, the company is now a global giant that ended the third quarter of fiscal 2026 with 41,304 stores around the world.
In May 2026, Dunkin' had more than 14,200 restaurants across nearly 40 markets. finance.yahoo.com
Costa Coffee is a major European competitor of Starbucks, with more than 2,700 branches across the UK and Ireland, according to The Caterer in February 2026.
The chain is a Canadian institution, with almost 6,232 restaurants in 21 countries and territories as of December 31, 2025.
Layout and figures refreshed 6 October 2026. Sources are listed at the end of the article.
Why it mattersFrom the article
Realizing its potential in non-North American markets, The Coca-Cola Company acquired Costa Coffee in 2019 for Β£3.9 billion.
In Europe and elsewhere, Costa Coffee is leveraging the power of parent company Coca-Cola to establish a strong presence.
The first such store opened in Australia in 1993, with more than 15,000 McDonaldβs restaurants now serving hot and cold coffee-related beverages with premium beans. In terms of the number of stores opened, McDonaldβs is the primary Starbucks competitor. Its competitiveness is further strengthened because the company can leverage its existing restaurant infrastructure β as explored in the economics of AI compute infrastructure β to serve coffee.
In 2014, McDonaldβs also started selling a range of coffee pods to compete with similar Starbucks products.
McDonald’s is a heavy-franchised business model. In 2022, over 60% of the total revenues came from franchised restaurants. The company’s long-term goal is to transition toward 95% of franchised restaurants (by 2022, franchised restaurants were 94.7% of the total). The company generated over $23 billion in revenues in 2022, of which $8.75 billion was from owned restaurants and $14.1 billion from franchised restaurants.
Dunkinβ Donuts
Dunkinβ Donuts is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company founded in 1950 by William Rosenberg. According to a May 2026 report, the company has more than14,200 restaurants across nearly 40 markets.
Although the company moved away from marketing itself as a coffee chain in the 90s, it introduced a specialty coffee line a decade later. Dunkin’ Donuts then launched its “American Runs on Dunkin'” advertising campaign, promoting itself as an All-American brand for the average consumer.
In addition to coffee and donuts, the chain also sells sandwiches, frozen beverages, bagels, and tea.
FourWeekMBABusiness EngineerTimeline, as stated in the article
1950
Dunkinβ Donuts is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company founded in 1950 by William Rosenberg.
1964
Tim Hortons was founded in 1964 by former professional ice hockey player Tim Horton together with Jim Charade.
1971
It was founded by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker in 1971.
1993
The first such store opened in Australia in 1993, with more than 15,000 McDonaldβs restaurants now serving hot and cold coffee-related beverages with premium beans.
2014
In 2014, McDonaldβs also started selling a range of coffee pods to compete with similar Starbucks products.
2019
Realizing its potential in non-North American markets, The Coca-Cola Company acquired Costa Coffee in 2019 for Β£3.9 billion.
Costa Coffee
Costa Coffee is a major European competitor of Starbucks, with more than 2,700 branches across the UK and Ireland, according to The Caterer in February 2026. Furthermore, the company operates over 6,000 Costa Express vending machine facilities.
Realizing its potential in non-North American markets, The Coca-Cola Company acquired Costa Coffee in 2019 for Β£3.9 billion. Ultimately, this gave the beverage giant a strong foothold in coffee and related products across parts of Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.
Tim Hortons
In terms of value for money, not many coffee chain companies can compete with the Canadian brand Tim Hortons. Starbucks is no exception.
The company offers a range of products, including muffins, cookies, pastries, bagels, and Greek yogurt with mixed berries. It also sells products under the Tims at Home banner, encompassing everyday essentials such as instant tea and coffee, hot chocolate, soup, and granola bars.
Key takeaways:
Starbucks is a multinational coffee chain that ended the third quarter of fiscal 2026 with 41,304 stores worldwide. Competitive pressures are a direct result of the companyβs global reach and also the nature of the industry it operates in.
Dunkinβ Donuts and Tim Hortons are also significant Starbucks competitors in the North American market. In Europe and elsewhere, Costa Coffee is leveraging the power of parent company Coca-Cola to establish a strong presence.
Serves hot and cold coffee beverages with premium beans in over 15,000 restaurants globally.
Utilizes existing restaurant infrastructure to serve coffee products.
In 2025, revenues from franchised restaurants were $16,548 million of total revenues of $26,885 million.
Dunkin’ Donuts:
Offers coffee and doughnuts in nearly 14,200 restaurants across nearly 40 markets.
Introduced a specialty coffee line and promotes itself as an All-American brand.
Sells sandwiches, frozen beverages, bagels, and tea in addition to coffee and doughnuts.
Costa Coffee:
Major European competitor with more than 2,700 branches across the UK and Ireland (The Caterer, February 2026) and 6,000 Costa Express vending machines.
Acquired by The Coca-Cola Company in 2019, expanding its presence across Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.
Tim Hortons:
Founded in Canada in 1964, offering value-for-money products.
Operates nearly 6,232 restaurants in 21 countries and territories as of December 31, 2025.
Provides a range of products including muffins, cookies, pastries, bagels, and beverages.
Starbucks follows a heavy-chained business model, where the company-operated stores play a critical role in the company’s long-term strategy, compared to McDonald’s heavy-franchised business model, where the long-term plan is to have over 95% of the stores as franchising.
Starbucks is a retail company that sells beverages (primarily consisting of coffee-related drinks) and food. In 2023, Starbucks had 44% of company-operated stores vs. 56% of licensed stores which might make you think Starbucks is a franchise business, when in reality most of its revenue (nearly 82% in 2023) came from company-operated stores, thus making Starbucks a chain business model.
Starbucks follows a chain business model strategy, where most of its revenue comes from its owned stores. For instance, in 2023, with nearly $36 billion in revenue, most of the revenue came from owned stores ($29.46 billion) compared to franchised stores ($4.51 billion) and other revenue sources ($2 billion). Yet owned stores have higher operational costs compared to franchised stores.
Starbucks follows a chain business model, building its brand through its owned stores.βAnd its owned stores are also where most of the revenue is generated.βIn addition, the owned stores are a great asset to keep experimenting with new products while maintaining tight control over the customer experience.
In 2023, Starbucks operated 19,592vs. 18,253 licensed stores. Starbucks leverages primarily company-operated stores to keep tight control over product development, branding, distribution, and customer experience. It also leverages licensed stores for better amplification of brand, revenue, and profits.
Starbucks made 60% of its revenue, in 2023, from beverages, followed by other revenue, which accounted for 22% of the total revenue (that comprises packaged and single-serve coffees and teas, plus royalty and licensing revenues, beverage-related ingredients, serve ware, and ready-to-drink beverages, among other items.) and food, which accounted for 18% of the total sales in 2023.
Starbucks’s mission is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit β one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” And its vision is to βtreat people like family, and they will be loyal and give their all.β
Starbucks is a multinational coffee chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker in 1971. From a single and very humble bean roasting store in Pike Place Market, the company is now a global giant that ended the third quarter of fiscal 2026 with 41,304 stores around the world. This large global footprint obviously increases the competition for Starbucks in many different markets. The coffee industry itself is also highly competitive, with established players including McDonaldβs and Dunkinβ Donuts.
Starbucks follows a matrix organizational structure with a combination of vertical and horizontal structures. It is characterized by multiple overlapping chains of command and divisions.
McDonald’s and Starbucks sit in the opposite spectrum of retail business models. Indeed, whereas McDonald’s follows a heavily franchised business model, Starbucks follows a heavy-chained one.
Starbucks highlights its mission as “to inspire and nurture the human spirit β one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” And its vision is to βtreat people like family, and they will be loyal and give their all.β
Starbucks is a global consumer brand with direct distribution, recognized brands, and products that make it a viable business. Its reliance on the Americas as a primary operating segment makes it a weakness. At the same time, Starbucks faces risks related to coffee beans price volatility. Yet the company still has global expansion opportunities.
Zoominfo is an American software-as-a-service (SaaS) company founded by Henry Schuck and Kirk Brown in 2007. The company sells access to the most comprehensive B2B database in the world to help sales and marketing teams better communicate with prospects. Zoominfo held an IPO in June 2020 raising $935 million. Like similar software companies that are valuable to remote teams, demand for the Zoominfo platform increased because of the coronavirus pandemic. It is now used by over 20,000 businesses, with clients including T-Mobile, Zoom, Amazon, and Google.
Spotify is the worldβs largest music streaming platform with over 381 million users across 184 markets around the world. The company was founded by Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek in 2008 in response to the shutdown of peer-to-peer music service Napster. Spotify became a success because it was the first company to determine how to distribute music legally and compensate the music industry at the same time. The platform now offers various curated music discovery services, music stations, audio customization, and private listening. In recent times, it has also ventured into the streaming of audiobooks, podcasts, comedy, poetry, and short stories.
Poshmark is a social commerce marketplace where users can buy and sell new or used clothing. The company was founded in 2011 by Manish Chandra, Tracy Sun, Gautam Golwala, and Chetan Pungaliya. Poshmark is one of many companies looking to profit from the explosive growth in the second-hand clothing and resale industry, which is expected to be worth around $51 billion by 2023. Scores of women, in particular, are opting to sell their unwanted fashion items online instead of donating them to charity or thrift stores.
Afterpay is an Australian fintech company operating in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the United States. Founded in 2014 by Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen, the company enjoyed a first-mover advantage in the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) space. Less than seven years later, the company reached 13.1 million active customers with gross sales amounting to $10.1 billion. Despite its success, some suggest the company has lost its edge in the buy-now-pay-later space with the emergence of several high-profile competitors exerting their influence and giving merchants more choice.
Carvana is an online used car retailer with vending machines located around the United States. The company was founded in 2012 by Ryan Keeton, Ben Huston, and Ernest Garcia III. The company is the fastest growing online used car retailer in North America and was recently one of the youngest companies to be added to the Fortune 500 list. While Carvana is currently the only American company selling cars in vending machines, its growth and success have not gone unnoticed by other players. In this article, weβll take a look at some of the companyβs major competitors.
Carvana is an online used car retailer with vending machines located around the United States. The company was founded in 2012 by Ryan Keeton, Ben Huston, and Ernest Garcia III. The company is the fastest growing online used car retailer in North America and was recently one of the youngest companies to be added to the Fortune 500 list. While Carvana is currently the only American company selling cars in vending machines, its growth and success have not gone unnoticed by other players. In this article, weβll take a look at some of the companyβs major competitors.
GoodRx is an American healthcare company known for its telemedicine platform and a website and mobile app that track prescription drug prices. As part of this service, the company makes drug coupons available for free to consumers. GoodRx was created by Trevor Bezdek, Doug Hirsch, and Scott Marlette. Hirsch, an early employee at both Yahoo and Facebook, got the idea for the company after picking up a prescription with private health insurance and still having to pay $450. Given the high variability in prices between different pharmacies, Hirsh went on a mission to make prescription drug prices more transparent and affordable for ordinary Americans. Revenue in the second quarter of 2021 amounted to $177 million with over 7.5 million app customers using the GoodRx app. While the company was the first to provide a comprehensive list of pharmacy drug prices, new players have entered the market. The rest of this article will be devoted to looking at the main GoodRx competitors.
DoorDash is an online food ordering and delivery platform founded by Tony Xu, Stanley Tang, Andy Fang, and Evan Moore in 2013. Together with its subsidiaries, DoorDash has a 56% market share in food delivery and a further 60% in the convenience delivery sector.
In 1965, PepsiCo acquired Frito-Lay in what the chairmen of both companies called a βmarriage made in heavenβ. The resultant company transformed PepsiCo from a soft drink organization and set it on a path to becoming one of the worldβs leading food and beverage companies. Today, PepsiCo claims to operate in more than 200 countries and territories around the world with seven distinct divisions and many successful brands.
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Starbucks is a multinational coffee chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker in 1971. From a single and very humble bean roasting store in Pike Place Market, the company is now a global giant that ended the third quarter of fiscal 2026 with 41,304 stores around the world. This large global footprint obviously increases the competition for Starbucks in many different markets. The coffee industry itself is also highly competitive, with established players including McDonaldβs and Dunkinβ Donuts.
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Peloton is a media and exercise equipment company primarily making money making money via its fitness products. The idea for the company came from John Foley, who argued that technology could help time-poor individuals get a full workout at home. The company competes with other players like Bowflex, NordicTrack, Life Fitness, MYX Fitness.
IKEA was founded in 1943 by Swedish businessman Ingvar Kamprad as a mail-order catalog business. The company is best known for selling affordable flat-pack furniture, but it also sells home accessories and kitchen appliances. Today, IKEA offers approximately 9,500 products across 445 stores in 52 countries. With such broad reach, IKEA is not immune to competition.
The Airbnb story began in 2008 when two friends shared their accommodation with three travelers looking for a place to stay. Just over a decade later, it is estimated that the company now accounts for over 20% of the vacation rental industry. As a travel platform, Airbnb competes with other brands like Booking.com, VRBO, FlipKey, and given its massive amount of traffic from Google. Also, platforms like Google Travel can be considered potential competitors able to cannibalize part of Airbnb’s market.
Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) provider, allowing businesses to build meaningful and sustained relationships with their customers. With robust, customizable software that integrates with social media, Gmail, and Microsoft Outlook, the Salesforce CRM platform is rated highly among businesses of all shapes and sizes. Recent data has shown that the company has captured 19.5% of the global CRM market.
In just fifteen short years, Shopify has grown from humble beginnings to become one of the fastest-growing eCommerce platforms online. The Shopify eCommerce solution is perhaps best suited to users who desire an easy, flexible and affordable starter solution for their online store. The provider now has upwards of 820,000 stores accounting for 20% of the total market share. However, the continued success of any company in the dynamic digital market is never guaranteed.
Netflix is the largest streaming video subscription service in the world. Created by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in 1997, the company has revolutionized the video content subscription model with over 139 million subscribers in 190 countries. The success of Netflix is due to two factors. The first is a recommendation system that gives suggestions on what customers should watch based on their viewing history. The second is the vast catalog of content on offer β produced by third parties and by Netflix itself. These factors have resulted in Netflix competing against influential TV networks and film producers for viewership.
YouTube is the most popular online video platform, a hybrid between a video search engine and a social media platform with a continuous feed prompted by social interactions and engagement. In fact, the platform is so popular that YouTube.com is the second most visited website on the internet. After being acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion, the platform now boasts over 2 billion registered users. Collectively, these users upload 500 hours of video every minute. The platform competes with other video engines like Vimeo, Dailymotion, and social platforms like IGTV, TikTok, and Twitch.
Zoom is a video platform, which enabled remote working. As such it competes with other large tech players like Google and Microsoft for the productivity space, and other startups like Slack and Go-To-Meetings.
As an electric automaker and builder of sports cars and now trucks, Tesla’s competitors comprise companies like Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi, Rivian Lucid Motors, Toyota, and more. At the same time, Tesla is an electric energy production and storage company (SolarCity); it competes with Sunrun, SunPower, and Vivint Solar. And as an autonomous driving company, it competes with companies like Zoox, Waymo, and Baidu with the self-driving software.
Amazon is a consumer e-commerce platform with a diversified business model spanning across e-commerce, cloud, advertising, streaming, and more. Over the years, Amazon acquired several companies. As it operates across several industries, Amazon has a wide range of competitors across each of those industries. For instance, Amazon E-commerce competes with Shopify, Wix, Google, Etsy, eBay, BigCommerce.
Sources for the figures updated on 6 October 2026
SEC EDGAR filings (Q3 fiscal 2026 (quarter ended 28 June 2026), primary)
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
