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captive market

British

noun

a group of consumers who are obliged through lack of choice to buy a particular product, thus giving the supplier a monopoly

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"The tactic kills two birds with one stone. It deprives America's farm belt of a once‑captive market and burnishes China's food security credentials," says Marina Yue Zhang, associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney's Australia-China Relations Institute.

From BBC

The app stores have a captive market.

From Slate

“When they decide to go out, they have cars and they can go anywhere. They’re not a captive market.”

From Washington Post

They have a captive market and they don't want to share it.

From BBC

They created a captive market of battery customers.

From New York Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023