Aielyn said:
You are wrong, since I never said that it means "of small proportion". I said that the term does not permit the use of the term "large". There's a very major difference between the two. "Niche" as a noun has three meanings. The first one refers to a shallow recess, and is the original meaning. The second one means "a comfortable or suitable position in life" - not applicable, here, as markets are never comfortable. The third one refers to specialisation - literally, specialised but profitable. Note that "specialised" implies small, because if it was "mass market", then it wouldn't be so specialised. A niche, in terms of market, would refer to things like "the niche market for kangaroo meat" or (less likely, since it's probably not profitable) "the niche market for puzzle games based on soccer". It might refer to "the niche market for ultra-gory titles that use only black, white, and red". But the key to these are that they're all relatively small markets, very specialised. And before you bother to make the absurd claim, the fact is that "casual games" are not specialised in any sense, and it isn't even a well-defined concept - "casual game" is mostly code for "games in genres that I don't like, but that sell well". In other words, the exact opposite of a niche. But hey, why bother actually learning the real meaning of the word, when you've already decided you know it? |
Alright, alright, let's stop this silliness of who knows what definition. So we clearly agree on the definition of niche. Since both you and I are skilled enough to google it. What we don't agree on is that a niche market can actually be or become large. Specializing in something can net you a large niche if there is enough demand for it. So back to gaming, Nintendo specialized in family gaming whereas the other 2 consoles didn't. They decided they wanted to serve that niche that was not being served before hand. The moms, dads, little sisters, grandma and grandpa. Their strategy worked, and their niche market ate their products up. So their niche became large. That is not to say they still maintain a niche market today. On the contrary, since you know the definition of niche as you so aptly copy/pasted above, then you surely know that niche markets can indeed become commodity markets based on competition, as well as supply and demand shifts. Once MS and Sony jumped in the family entertainment game, it no longer became a niche market and has turned into a commodity now. Very much like organic food, which used to be considered a niche market back in the day until all the big players saw the rapid rise in demand and jumped into the game. Once you have companies like Walmart (and other big players) selling organic food, the organic market is no longer niche and has transitioned to a commodity market. But prior to that transition, the niche market- oddly enough, became large...
I love full circles.
