A stacked bar chart shows the annual sales (in € thousands) of five

Question

A stacked bar chart shows the annual sales (in € thousands) of five technology companies—A through E—from 2014 to 2018. Each bar represents the total industry sales for the year, broken down by company.

An industry analyst is tasked with identifying long-term market behavior based on relative market shares, not absolute sales amounts.

Based solely on the graph described, the company with the most consistent market share over the five years is , and the company whose market share declined most sharply is .

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Official Answer

Dropdown 1: Company D Dropdown 2: Company E

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

Solution:

To determine which company had the most consistent market share, we must examine how the relative size of each company’s segment (its band within the stacked bar) changes across the five years. Remember, a stacked bar chart represents total market sales as a full bar, and each company's proportional share as a segment within it.

Company D appears as a uniform band across all five years. Although the overall market size changes, the height of Company D’s segment as a proportion of the total bar remains nearly unchanged. This visual consistency reflects a stable market share, making Company D the correct choice.

To determine which company experienced the most significant decline in market share, we look for the company whose segment visibly shrinks the most from 2014 to 2018.

Company E shows a notable contraction in its segment size over time. In 2014, Company E occupied a substantial portion of the bar, but by 2018, its segment has narrowed dramatically, indicating a significant drop in proportional contribution to the market. No other company exhibits such a consistent and sharp visual decline.

SwethaReddyL · Answer

Hi  Bunuel , here the word consistent market share means, that the company that has the same share without any increase or decrease right? Although i got this correct, initially I stumbled between company B and company D for the first answer choice.

Krotishka1 · Answer

The word “consistent” makes me stumble here.
Consistent as in “stay the same”? It’s definitely A.
It is the only company whose change — both direction-wise and proportion-wise — matches the market change in every 5 instances.
As for the share of company D, its share is actually inconsistent. The absolute number is always the same, it does not change with the market, meaning that its share is always different.

Krotishka1 · Answer

It can't be B: B's share rises in 2016 when the market actually shrinks.
It can't be C: C's share sharply declines in 2015 when the market is increasing slightly.
It can't be D: it's absolute value is seemingly the same every year, while the market fluctuates significantly during these 5 years. If the absolute value stays the same during these fluctuations, it means that the relative value is fluctuating as well. That is, not consistent.
It can't be E either: it's absolute value is actually declining every year no matter the market movement.

Finally, there is A.
Whenever the market is rising, the absolute value is rising as well.
Whenever the market is falling, the absolute values matches the movement.
This is what I would actually call consistent.

jasmynkaur003 · Answer

To solve this, I calculated the market share for each company from 2014 to 2018 by dividing each company’s sales by the total sales for that year and converting it to a percentage. For example, in 2014, total sales were 200, so Company D’s market share was I repeated this for each year and company. For the most consistent market share, I noticed Company D’s sales remained constant 14-15%

Krotishka1 · Answer

Here are the numbers for the chart:
https://imgur.com/a/bRDte4q

Based on three potential metrics I could come up with for measuring consistency, company D is indeed the most consistent:
https://imgur.com/a/rj92Wy8

durant25 · Answer

I got the same, consistent means % share not abs value right?

egmat · Answer

Hi durant25,

Yes, your reading is the right one.  "Market share" is a proportion, so it is a percentage of each year's total bar, not the raw euro figure.

The prompt actually settles this for you: the analyst is judging "relative market shares,  not  absolute sales amounts." So the quantity you track for any company in any year is:

- that company's band / the height of the whole bar that year = its share

This is the part that makes consistency tricky to eyeball. The total bar changes height every year (about  215 ,  217 ,  187 ,  198 ,  255 ). A band can stay exactly the same thickness and still be a  shrinking  share if the bar around it is growing - and a  growing  share if the bar is shrinking. So you cannot judge consistency by whether a band looks the same height; you judge it by the band-to-bar ratio.

Run that on the two answers:

-  Company D  (the hatched band) sits at roughly  40  every year. As a share that is about  40/215 ≈ 19% ,  40/187 ≈ 21% ,  43/255 ≈ 17%  - a tight  17-21%  in every single year. Its slice barely moves, so it is the most consistent share.
-  Company E  (the dotted band at the top) goes from about  60/215 ≈ 28%  in  2014  down to roughly  10/255 ≈ 4%  in  2018  - a steady, steep fall in its slice. That is the sharpest decline in share.

Answer: Dropdown 1: Company D; Dropdown 2: Company E

A stacked bar chart shows the annual sales (in € thousands) of five

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