What is the market?

The market is the game space. The game has been for diversity divided into separate markets, whose common elements are the resources (and their common prices), product subcategories, and business types. Every market is characterized by population, inhabitants' disposable income, and demographic structure specifying number and disposable income distribution across the population. The demographic structure is represented in the game by consumer segments.

Newly opened market is not too complex. There is one company representing each distribution level (+HoReCa chain, currently not available to the players) operating: a manufacturer producing one product from each subcategory, a distributor, and a retail chain buying from the distributor. Their names are the same as the market names they operate in. E.g. in newly opened Vilambia market there would be Vilambia manufacturing, Vilambia distribution, Vilambia retail, Vilambia restaurants. These companies are not too sophisticated in business management, as they are not operated by active players - these are merely reacting to the environment programs. This is why they are called passive businesses. However, they are huge at the beginning, able to cover all basic needs of the population. Players that join the game and start their businesses in immature markets start competing with these passive businesses at first. As the number of businesses in the market grows, share of passive business declines, the market matures, and competition gets stronger.