The Four Biggest U.S. Vape Brands Are Battling Fiercely

According to Nielsen data, JUUL’s U.S. market share has declined by 0.3% for the first time, but it still holds 71.4% of the American market, and its dominant position remains firmly intact.

Last year, due to pressure from the FDA, JUUL was forced to remove all fruit-flavored pods from the market to prevent youth nicotine addiction. However, this move did not cause a downward trend in JUUL’s sales. On the contrary, JUUL achieved considerable sales growth by actively expanding into the European and Southeast Asian markets.

Vaping is not the traditional tobacco industry, so there is no such thing as a true “monopoly.” Take the domestic Chinese vape market as an example: although RELX has created a sales miracle by ranking first across multiple platforms and channels, it still accounts for only about 40% of the market. Other brands such as YOOZ, VFOLK, FLOW, Xiaoye, MOTI, and Snowplus are all forces that cannot be ignored.

Returning to the U.S. vape market, JUUL still dominates with a 70% market share. But while JUUL was busy dealing with the FDA last year, a dark horse—NJOY—stormed into the market with a $0.99 device and $7.99 pods. In less than a year, NJOY captured 11.6% market share, and its sales surged 1141.2% year-on-year. Such impressive results naturally stirred envy, so Vuse Alto, the vaping brand under British American Tobacco, followed suit by offering its device online for $0.99, while Imperial Tobacco was equally unwilling to back down, pricing its Blu vaping device at $1 to meet the challenge.

Although JUUL was forced to remove all fruit-flavored pods, fruit-flavored pods from NJOY, Vuse, and Blu are still available both online and offline. As for how these four giants will ultimately divide up the huge vaping market, we will have to wait and see.