Bloomberg reported that when it comes to performance in China, Caterpillar seems to be floundering. Bloomberg said that although it opened a Beijing office in 1978, the company’s current market share in China is only about 7%. Bloomberg noted one of the lessons learned by multinational companies keen on building market share in China is “beware of the ‘1.3 billion customers’ syndrome.”

Bloomberg said the Caterpillar’s rivals were also well aware of the size of China’s construction market, and they weren’t planning to cede market share to Caterpillar. In 2010, Bloomberg said, “if we could add up the targeted 5-year market shares of all of the players in China’s construction equipment market, the figure would almost have certainly been 200%, a perfect setup for massive disappointment for at least some of the players.”

Link to Bloomberg Businessweek article: click here.