@SLH
There are several other big players apart from SE and NJoy. Many of them are not seen on ECF as their primary market is the new user class of consumer, and ECF visitors are less likely to be their customers.
They tend to be cartomizer-style suppliers, and are successful because they employ good marketing strategies. There is a visible difference between them, and those we are more familiar with here - they employ marketing staff in various disciplines whereas companies here tend to limit their marketing costs. Each group has chosen a different market area.
They are arguably more successful because their profit margins are higher and the new user market is quite large, and growing fast. So, although SE and NJoy are well-known, they are not the only big guys out there. It's just that you won't see the others on ECF as they don't need to be here and it wouldn't benefit them in any case.
As you hint at, BT and BP cannot lose in this situation - it's a win-win for them. If ecigs are killed off, they win; if ecigs are beaten to the floor and have to comply with ridiculous medical regulations, BP wins since their expertise and cost of business in that field are going to be advantageous when 99.9% of ecig companies fold under that regime and can be bought out by BP; if ecigs are beaten to the floor and have to comply with excessive consumer regulations and therefore most ecig companies fold, then BT wins as they can step in and buy them up, bringing out their Marbora E-Cigarette when convenient.
Regulations can be changed at a later stage of course, by the injection of funding into the process. It's a shame that the ecig industry is not injecting funds itself at this critical stage. But ecig supply is basically a cottage industry with a handful of big players who are more interested in cutting each others' throats than cooperating to defeat the opposition.
Each believes that they can survive the onslaught and bounce back, whatever the regulatory climate, because they have the funds to do so. In some cases this is obviously true. It is an attractive commercial option because it means the government kills off all your rivals for you.
If that happens, there will be five or six big names left in business, and the rest of the industry will close up shop for a while. After a time, a massive underground supply system will start up for ecig parts and refills. It will become the new c o c a i n e, and be equally unstoppable but five times the size. Eventually a measurable percentage of the population will have been 'criminalized' and at that stage, change might be expected to take place.
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