[olivierduval]

That's called "barrier to entry" to a market (or "un-leveling the field of play"). Actually, that's what any significant corp use first to forbid any new competitor to compete (and that's the reason of the need of "disruption", meaning changing the field of play instead of trying to level it for all players).

Examples:

- laws and regulations provide great barrier for newcomers

- brand recognition (would you better by a know cigarette brand or unknown cheapest one?)

- technical and/or financial and/or IP investment, either because the INDUSTRIAL process need costly tools (so you need to be big from the start) or because you need some really specific know-how

- ...