Market share analysis is a part of market analysis and indicates how well a firm is doing in the marketplace compared to its competitors.

Givon, Mahajan, and Muller have researched spreadsheet and word processing software firms to give a clearer image of how to determine market share in the software industry. They propose six factors to help estimate the value of market share (1997):

A market share analysis needs to take into account the following:

Total Market Size refers to the annual business volume in currency or in number of transactions;

Market Growth Rate refers to the Compound Annual Growth Rate|Compounded Annualized Growth Rate (CAGR) taken over a period of 3 to 5 years;

Market Share is the breakup of market size in percentage terms, to help identify the top players, the middle and the "minnows" of the marketplace, based on the volume of business conducted;

Market Segmentation Some of the factors that determine the market are price, quality, speed of service, ease of maintenance, and points of distribution. By mapping on quality and price parameters, it is possible to identify graphically the spaces which are crowded by service providers and which are the relatively empty spots;

Key Players i.e.the top players in each segment of the market. The extent to which they provide premium quality, or premium service or price advantage, can help identify future target segments;