LibGuides: Business Plans: Competitors

Finding Competitors

Hoovers
A searchable company directory containing information on public and private enterprises worldwide. Identifying competitors is supported as follows:
-When you search a company using Hoovers select the tab labelled Competition and then select the option Competitors List.
-The Build a List tab available from the menu of tabs provided on the top of each Hoovers screen is also an extremely useful tool for building customized lists of competitors using a wide range of criteria provided including NAICS or SIC code. Criteria available for screening are grouped by broad categories including Company Location, Company Information, Industry, Company Size and Financial Information.

SimplyAnalytics This link opens in a new window
Create thematic maps and statistical tables using demographic, business, and marketing data. It is recommended that you create your own login the first time you use this database. Can be used to map and/or list competitors in a geographic area.
SimplyAnalytics allows users of all levels to generate a meaningful and interesting data set. Easy-to-use drop-down menus at the top of the page allow you to change location, data variable, or geographic unit. Focus your map on a particular census division or forward sortation area (postal code) to dig into the demographic makeup of a city neighbourhood. The tool can also generate detailed reports on any geographic location; simply choose your desired location and variable to generate a report in seconds. Business students and faculty members will find the detailed business profiles and revenue data particularly useful, while social sciences and humanities researchers can easily study socio-economic trends and health information. See also SimplyAnalytics Help Center.

Mergent Intellect
Mergent Intellect covers millions of publicly-traded and private companies around the globe. Company records are sourced from a combination of Hoovers and Dun and Bradstreet Million Dollar Directories. Other business information includes executive contacts, a global corporate family tree feature, and industry news. Intellect also offers access to Key Business Ratios (KBR) for competitive benchmarking data.

To create a list of companies, select the Advanced Search function and select the Industry option along the top of the search screen. You have the option here of searching either by SIC code or NAICS code – using the various drop down menus to find the appropriate codes. Once you have selected your industry codes, click Add to Criteria > Search. This will provide you a list of companies, which can then be exported to an Excel file.
S&P Capital IQ
is a web-based platform with over 4 million private companies profiled. Limited financial data is available. To create a list of private companies: hover over the Screening tab > select Companies > Within the Company Details box, one can limit Company Type as Private Company. To access Capital IQ, current York students, faculty and staff must create an account using their valid YorkU e-mail. Here is our step-by-step guide on how to create your Capital IQ account. All subsequent access to Capital IQ MUST go through the YUL Capital IQ link
Mergent Online
This database which has international coverage can be used to identify competitors which are publicly-traded (no private company coverage). Searching for competitors is supported as follows:
- Search for a company using Mergent Online and then select the Competitors tab to identify competitors globally for the firm in question.
- Search for competitors using NAICS, SIC or ICB codes from the home page.You can also limit by country, exchange or index.
- In the Advanced Search mode more sophisticated screening of companies is available using criteria under the categories Corporate Information, Executives, Industry Codes, Pricing, Ratios, Textual Search and Index.
PrivCo
Provides access to business and financial data on major private corporations in the United States. Lists created in PrivCo can be download to Excel. Select search criteria for any combination of fields, geography, industry and annual revenues to generate a list. Note: Users will have to create an account using their YorkU email address.
Factiva
Provides an overview of companies, a few years of financial data and specialized reports such as financial health and ratio comparison. Click on the Companies/Markets tab on the menu at the top of the screen and then select the submenu option Company. Identifying competitors is supported by:
- Search by company name, ticker, DUNS or registration ID and then select the Peer Comparison option. The nearest 10 competitors to the company selected will appear ranked by sales revenue. Market cap and no. of employees are also provided.
Nexis Uni
Provides coverage of publicly-traded companies globally. Searching for competitors is supported as follows: Select Advanced Search, then Select a specific content type. From the list select Company & Financial, expand this and select Company Profile. Now enter a company name in the search box at the top of the page. When the profile displays an Other Available Reports box displays on the right, select Top Competitors.
Bloomberg
Available at the Bronfman Business Library. The following commands are useful for competitor research (publicly-traded companies globally) RV (Relative Value), PPC (Peer Comparison) and EQS (equity screening).
Marketline Advantage
Provides information about public companies and some private companies worldwide. Competitors research is supported as follows:
- Select Companies from the drop-down list of options which appears beside the search box and type in the name of the company you wish to search for. When the company record loads, select Key Competitors in the list of right-hand menu options provided. Links to the records for competitor companies in the Marketline Advantage database are provided.
Mergent Horizon
Mergent Horizon can be accessed via a Horizon tab on the same interface as Mergent Online as illustrated on this guide

Industry Codes

When researching competitors it is very important to understand and use industry codes.

This is because industry codes group competitors operating in the same line of business. These codes define industries broadly and narrowly using a hierarchical numbering scheme in most cases. This U.S. guide to the NAICS 2022 codes provides examples.

Note that practically all company databases allow you to search for companies by applying one or more system of industry codes, e.g., NAICS (North American Industrial Classification System) or SIC (Standard Industrial Classification).

Please consult our Industry Codes guide for more information.