13 Items That Are Nearly Monopolized By One Company

It’s amazing how many items we use on a daily basis are actually monopolized by one company. From eyewear to luxury goods, rocket launches to grocery store items, cash management to dating apps, zippers to soft drinks, and telecommunications to beer - it’s all controlled by a select few. In this list, we’ll explore 13 items that are surprisingly monopolized by one company, and discover the power and influence they have over our lives.

From the eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica to the billionaire Bernard Arnault’s luxury goods empire, Elon Musk’s SpaceX to the big companies controlling the grocery store items, the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group’s monopoly on soft drinks to Match Group’s dating app empire, and the Japanese zipper company YKK to the Dutch chipmaker ASML Holdings, we will explore the fascinating and often surprising ways in which these companies have taken control of the market and are influencing our lives.

So, let’s dive in and discover the 13 items that are surprisingly monopolized by one company. Who knows what we’ll find?

Click right here to get the best of Cracked sent to your inbox.

13 Zipping along with half the world’s zippers.

CRACKED MONOPOLY Zippers YKK YKK YKK, a Japanese company that makes zippers, produces a huge amount of them- more than 7 billion a year-which is about half of all the zippers in the world. — *DaiDony/Shutterstock*
**Slate**

12 Ticket-opoly?

CRACKED MONOPOLY Live events Ticketmaster Ticketmaster is the biggest player in the ticketing events industry, dominating more than 70% of the market. In other words, they pretty much own the whole thing. — *bbernard/Shutterstock*
**Investopedia**

11 SpaceX: Taking Over the Universe.

MONOPOLY Rocket launches SpaceX Elon Musk's SpaceX is dominating the rocket launch market - having, for example, done more than half of all launches into space in 2020. CRACKED — *Evgeniyqw/Shutterstock*
**The Wall Street Journal**

10 Bikes? Shimano’s got you.

CRACKED GNO MONOPOLY Bicycle parts Shimano Japanese company Shimano has a huge presence in the bicycle industry, owning 70% of the brakes and gears market and half of the bicycle components market. They're pretty much the go-to for bike parts. — *NUTTANART KHAMLAKSANA/Shutterstock*
**Wired**

9 Monopoly? More like Nvidi-opoly.

CRACKED quiet msi GEFOR MONOPOLY Graphics cards Nvidia Nvidia has a huge chunk of the graphics processing market, almost 95%, which makes it almost like a monopoly. — *Skrypnykov Dmytro/Shutterstock*
**The Week**

8 Monopoly much?

CRACKED MONOPOLY Media Six megacorps Most of the media in the U.S. is owned by only six big companies: Comcast, Disney, News Corp, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS. They add up to 90% of the entire media market. — *Proxima Studio/Shutterstock*
**Insider**

7 Dating monopoly: check.

CRACKED MONOPOLY Online dating Match Group Enrique, 28 - to - amazon to nail the with me I Finess Travel x D Match Group, a company you might never have heard of, has a big chunk of the dating app market, including the apps Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, and The League. — *Kaspars Grinvalds/Shutterstock*
**The Verge**

6 Eyewear giant: EssilorLuxottica rules them all.

CRACKED MONOPOLY Glasses EssilorLuxottica EssilorLuxottica is a giant in the eyewear world, with a huge influence over almost every aspect of the industry, from the lenses and frames down to the stores that sell them. — *Ivlianna/Shutterstock*
**CBC**

5 Bernard Arnault: Rich and getting richer.

CRACKED MONOPOLY Luxury goods Bernard Arnault Bernard Arnault is the owner of the biggest luxury goods company in the world. It's worth $210 billion, and made $58 billion in 2019 alone. — *Jérémy Barande/Wiki Commons*
**SMU Look**

4 Monopoly on groceries: not so sweet.

CRACKED LYAN MONOPOLY Most things in the grocery store Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and Kraft Heinz A few big companies have a monopoly on everyday stuff in the grocery store, including breakfast cereals, soda, wine, tea bags, snack bars, sugar, chocolate, and yogurt. — *1000 Words/Shutterstock*
**The Guardian**

3 Big spender.

CRACKED L-2013-134 MONOPOLY Cash management J.B.C Brink's SECURITY SINCE 1859 55-51578 Brink's Co. is the biggest cash management company in the world (meaning, they make armored trucks and stuff). They have a complete hold on the industry after buying Dunbar Armored Inc. for a whopping $520 million. — *lunopark/Shutterstock*
**Maryland Daily Record**

2 Essential EUV tech: ASML’s monopoly.

FITE CRACKED MONOPOLY Machines that make microprocessors ASML Holdings ASML, a Dutch company, is the only one with the technology and machinery to make silicon chips and processors. This is essential for companies like TSMC, NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, and others to make their chips. — *raigvi/Shutterstock*
**Firstpost**

1 Monopolized.

CRACKED MONOPOLY Pizza cheese Leprino Foods Leprino Foods, owned by one James Leprino from Colorado, is the biggest exporter of lactose in the U.S. and provides 85% of the cheese used by Pizza Hut, Domino's, Little Caesars, and Papa John's. — *Hans Geel/Shutterstock*
**Inc.com**

Must Read

15 Pithy Jokes and Quotes to Fill the Last Vacant Crevices of Your Brain

There’s always room for jokes

Authors: By Jesse
Published: April 28, 2024
Comments: 0

Sean Penn’s Angry Letter to Trey Parker and Matt Stone Post-’Team America’ Is Still Hilarious 20 Years Later

Penn had no sense of humor about his parody, but the letter he penned was unintentional comedy gold

Authors: By Keegan Kelly
Published: April 28, 2024
Comments: 1

Colin Jost’s 10 Best Burns From the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

It was Weekend Update in a tuxedo

Authors: By Matt Solomon
Published: April 28, 2024
Comments: 1

Why the Sequel to ‘Goodfellas’ Was a ‘90s Steve Martin Comedy

‘My Blue Heaven’ was payback for a real mobster’s annoying phone calls

Authors: By JM McNab
Published: April 28, 2024
Comments: 1

My Very Gonzo Life

A conversation with Dave Goelz, the man who for nearly 50 years has served as the voice and puppeteer of Gonzo — the pain-loving, dare-deviling, chicken-dating, Charles Dickens-impersonating, furry blue star of the Muppets

26 Trivia Tidbits About Movies and TV Shows

25 of the Funniest Things Seen on a Train

20 Ridiculed Historical Figures Owed an Apology By Society

12 Rousing Facts to Roll Up Your Eyelids and Read

30 Random Facts That’ll Juice Your Brain Like a Fat Lemon