How to estimate market size–top-down and bottom-up?

Market sizing is a key step in equity research and investing.ย It is very useful in Strategy Consulting to understand the โ€œsize-of-the-prizeโ€.

It is a favorite topic for recruiters (I was asked to estimate the 2-wheeler market size in my case interview for my present firm almost a decade ago)

Now, letโ€™s understand market sizing for a few industries.ย There are two methods: top-down and bottom-up.
First, letโ€™s understand ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฝ-๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ป for 4 example industries. It has the following steps:

a. ๐—œ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐—ณ๐˜† ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐˜† ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฐ e.g.,
โ€ข Premiums (for Insurance business)
โ€ข # of 2-wheelers
โ€ข # of beds (for hospitals)
โ€ข AUM (for Asset Management)

b. ๐——๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜‚๐—ฒ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—š๐——๐—ฃ ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป e.g.,
โ€ข General Insurance Premium is 1% of India GDP
โ€ข # of 2-wheelers = 160 per 1000 people
โ€ข # of beds = 1.3 per 1000 people
โ€ข MF AUM is 20% of GDP

c. ๐—–๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐—ด๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—น / ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ e.g.,
โ€ข General Insurance Premium is 2% of China and South Africa GDP
โ€ข # of 2-wheelers = 300 per 1000 people in China
โ€ข # of beds = 3 per 1000 people (WHO reco.)
โ€ข MF AUM is 25% of China GDP; 50%+ of Brazil and SA GDP

Using this comparison you can estimate the top-down market size for each of these 4 industries.

B๐—ผ๐˜๐˜๐—ผ๐—บ-๐˜‚๐—ฝ market sizing requires more work.
To over simplify, it is p*q i.e.
product price * quantity that can be sold to target customers in a particular industry.

If top-down and bottom- up are close then you have arrived at a reasonable market size estimate.

Take a look at these video snippets / posts to understand how I bring the above theory into practice for diff industries:

โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”
๐˜“๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ๐˜๐˜ฏ ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ง๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ฉ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ด ๐˜ฑ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ๐˜ถ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ / ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ป๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฒ๐˜ถ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜บ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ท๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ต๐˜ด โ€” ๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ฉ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฎ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ.
๐˜๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฆ๐˜น๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ด๐˜ด ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ด โ€” ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ๐˜ต ๐˜ฆ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜บ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ข๐˜ฑ๐˜ฑ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ช๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ณy ๐˜ฅ๐˜ช๐˜ง๐˜ง๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ด โ€” ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ข ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ช๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ

Invest (in yourselfand Rise!