With the e-cigarette market growing by triple digits nearly every year, it is no surprise it has gotten a lot of attention from the big tobacco corporations.
Although the market is still miniscule compared to the normal cigarette market (2.7 Billion vs. 80 Billion USD), it is still causing alarm to the big tobacco players, as sales of e-cigs do not look like they will stop. Analyst Bonnie Herzog, from Wells Fargo, predicted that the e-cigarette market will surpass the normal cigarette market by as early as 2025. Bloomberg have made a more conservative prediction saying that e-cigarettes will surpass normal ones by 2047. The e-cig market has also been buoyed by the rise of the e-hookah, an e-cig without nicotine. These devices have stormed the market and are becoming, perhaps worryingly, very popular with youths.
Sales in 2014 though have not been as good as expected for the e-cig market with sales not growing as fast as they have done in previous years. Some people are putting this down to much of the negative press towards e-cigarettes, whereby they have been treated with intensified scepticism by public health advocates and governments a-like. Regulations on e-cigs are tightening around the world with many cities in the US now enforcing the same rules on e-cig vaping as on smoking. This means you cannot vape your e-cig in places where smoking is banned. Despite a small slowdown in sales in 2014 and likely stricter regulations on the horizon, I think the electronic cigarette market is well and truly established and looks like it is here to stay.
Who are the big players in the market?
The established e-cig firms are making big money in this booming market. Some of the incumbents have become the targets of acquisitions from the big tobacco firms. Blu, the largest e-cig firm in the world, was first acquired by Lorrilard and now by Imperial Tobacco. Greensmoke were acquired by Altria Group a few years ago. Despite these acquisitions, some of the big players remain untouched by the big tobacco firms. Firms like Vaporfi, Njoy and V2 are either privately or publicly owned and are flourishing in the market. Vaporfi are part of the publicly listed group International Vaporgroup who own other brands like Eversmoke and Southbeach. V2 are the largest online sellers of e-cigarettes and have expanded aggressively abroad into Europe. They have dedicated UK and German sites with a warehouse in Europe.
Popular E-Cigs
My personal favourite models include the Vaporfi Rebel II and the Vaporfi Vox 50 Mod, but I’m a more advanced vaper. For beginners ePuffer, Vaporfi, V2 and Halo have some great models out there. Be sure to find some coupon codes on sites like TBEC Review to make sure you get some good discounts on your first purchases.
