Worldbuilding 205: Megacorps
Greetings and skiamachy! You know, I am not going to bet on that fight. Anyway, hello everyone! We all know that my beloved American sister is a bit of a negative nancy who loves dystopian hell holes, something something living in one, I think. What is common in dystopian hellholes? Well, megacorps, of course! At least in cyberpunk ones, and that started a lot of hellholes, so today we discuss it!
It’s not the size that matters
As per usual, let’s define things. What even is a megacorp? Here is how I define it:
A megacorp is a corporation that exists essentially independent of the government of the state in which it resides.
What does that mean? Well, in a lot of literature and discussions, the size of a megacorp is talked about, and let’s not delude ourselves, they are enormous. But companies can be enormous and still not feel like a megacorp. So, what is this feeling of megacorpness?
In my view, it is the fact that they can do essentially anything they want. Their power is so grand in terms of money, military, or any other thing, that the local governments on any level are helpless to stop the megacorp. This adds to the dystopian feeling because the megacorp can do anything it wants and will extract money and resources from people.
But that only addresses the mega part, what is corp? Well, corporation of course, but we want a definition for that too!
A corporation is an abstract entity which exists with the goal of earning money.
Keep in mind, I am not going for any legal accurate definition but rather one that we can use for worldbuilding. Legal definition of a corporation is very complex, and I won’t go into here, but maybe at a later date. I say “entity” because it is an entity that we imbue responsibility, actions, assets, and much else that we would to any person, but I say “abstract” because a corporation is not a physical entity. It is not a specific person, it is not a specific place, it simply exists as a concept, an entity, in our minds. And we all can agree that the goal of any corporation is earning money, right?
Vertical, Horizontal, Monopoly, Monopsony Megacorp
While I do say that size is not what makes a megacorp mega, size is certainly a part of what they are, and megacorps are always absolutely ENORMOUS in terms of operations. But for corporations, you can be big in essentially four ways and none excludes any other.
Monopoly
This is the most infamous of them all. It even has a game named after it! But what does it mean? Well, it comes from mono- meaning one, and -polein, a Greek root meaning seller. So it has nothing to do with poly meaning many (though one-many is a funny way to analyse the word).
And as the root entails, it literally means there is only one seller. So a megacorp that invokes the tactic of monopoly is the only seller of something. It can be of some very important struo. What’s a struo? In short, made up materials. Not quite the same as madeupium or the like, but close enough.
Or maybe the megacorp is the only company with certain hyper important technology. Whatever it is that they have, they are the only place where you can get it. Why are these often troublesome? Well… if they are the only ones where you can get it and you REALLY need it, what do you do? You pay what they ask, and guess what they will do.
That’s right, they will hike up the prices as far as they can to squeeze every penny out of you. Sure, all corporations go as high as they possibly can always, but when there are other sellers if you go too high, people walk off to another seller and the corporation's profits nosedive. In a monopoly, they can go even higher, and it only starts hurting them when the cost of getting what they sell is so high it is worthwhile not having it.
And for important things like food, water, electricity, medicine, that bar of “when I am ready to not have it rather than paying” is extremely high, so they can really crush you then.
Monopsony
This one is far less familiar to people. But it derives from mono- again and -opsonia, again a Greek root that means buyer, purchaser. So it literally means “one buyer,” and, as the name suggests, it means that for a specific goods or service, they are the only one that can and will buy it from you.
Whether you sell struos, potions, weapons, you have only one corporation to sell it too, and if you don’t… Well, you’re stuck with what you have! No one else will take it off your hands, so you better hope you like what you got!
What does this mean? Well, a monopoly squeezes the buyers, but a monopsony squeezes the sellers. Because the monopsony is the only buyer, it means they can set the prices as low as they want. Well, so low that you don’t think it is better to destroy your stock of whatever you have.
This is worse with fields where the barrier to entrance is really low because new actors, sellers, can easily come and replace any that choose to leave. This is, in fact, a phenomenon that has happened in many places despite its name being so obscure. Most of the time, it is the government that demands it is the only buyer of something, or is it simply the only buyer because who else would be insane enough to want what you have?
But it happens also through just ordinary companies who can get legal agreements that you can only sell to them or through various structures force you to only sell to them. Chicken farmers in 🇺🇸 anyone?
Vertical Integration
Let’s say you want to run a railroad with trains and all, and you want to be the top dog of railroads, a real railroad tycoon. Sure, you can get a monopoly on it by being the biggest, but if you control the trains… It would be good if you also controlled the railroads and how to maintain them and lay new tracks. Saves money, and you don’t have to pay anyone to use their railroad, it's yours!
But hmmm, railroads require iron and steel… Oh well, might as well get a foundry and smelter at the same time then. No longer do you need to buy steel from anyone else! But smelters and trains both require coal… Oh well, just get the coal mines as well then. No need to buy coal from anyone; you have the coal under control! Wait, for the steel we also need iron mines, might as well take those too!
This phenomenon is known as vertical integration; think of it like you have layers upon layers of products and services where the bottom layer is the most basic stuff that you extract from nature and each step upward is a more processed product or service. It is then vertical as you are further up but want to control all that you need so you go vertically down to control it.
Sure, for the company it has the benefit that it doesn’t need to make any profits when it sells to itself, so it is overall cheaper. Problem is that it starts controlling more and more of many products, and with it, the odds of becoming a monopoly or monopsony increases.
Horizontal integration
Let’s say you are a corporate overlord again. You own, hmm, how about a microchip company. You make decent profits, and then…Oh look, you can also make lots of money if you control the water supply to people, so you buy the water company as well. Oh look, same with electricity, so you buy that. You know, pig meat sells really well too, so might as well buy the slaughterhouse as well and get a monopsony going.
Yeah, the distinction between vertical and horizontal is that in horizontal, you don’t care so much about making what you already produce cheaper and making it easier to control or manufacture, you grab things around you instead that make lots of profit and build a corporate empire of many industries that can be completely unrelated to one another.
And like with vertical, the issue isn’t in the integration itself, but rather that it easily turns into a monopoly or monopsony.
Oligo is bad enough
A common thing in fiction that I have noticed is that the megacorps have at least geographical monopolies, but they don’t need to reach that point. Oligopoly and Oligopsony are bad enough if you want it to be a hellhole. Oligopoly and Oligopsony means there are few sellers/buyers (I’d say 5 or less).
This is functionally just as bad as one because when there are that few, they can easily create a cartel where they work together to hike prices if they sell or cut prices if they buy. They don’t even need to communicate and plan with each other, they can merely observe each other and move in tandem.
So if you do make megacorp worlds, don’t be afraid to have it so that they have some overlap, because even if they sell the same goods and services… if you only have 4 options to go to and everyone is trying to bleed you dry… you better hope you have a lot of blood to give.
Corpocracy
Corpocracy, ruled by corps, ruled by corporations! Yeah, I said that the definition I use is that they are independent of governments, and I stick by it. But the question is, how do they relate to governments?
This can depend a lot on your choice. In some settings it is perfectly natural that they fully ignore the government. The megacorp has bought the land, all assets, so it’s its choice what happens there and the government decides to leave them be. Depending on the political system this might be the best option for whoever in charge. My fellow 🇺🇸 readers know how it is on that part already, by leaving megacorps alone they won’t use their immense wealth to undermine your position, as a politician, of power.
In other settings they might have more of an antagonistic relation so the megacorp is actively interfering with the politics. Moving money around, making people disappear, getting bills passed that it wants, and so on. Sure, it is big enough to not need to law, but having a law that fits its desires can still be desirable. It gives peace and you don’t need to deal with police and military constantly, those are expensive and cuts into your profit margins!
Though what if…the megacorps ARE the government? Gasp, I know! How is it then? Well, technically the definition breaks then… except it doesn’t, because in most settings, the megacorps are not alone, they’re usually like a small federation of megacorps that work together, and if they piss each other off, they can ignore the rest. But in these situations, the megacorp federation tends to be of the style where each megacorp has geographically complete domination. Think of it like having all 4 above but geographically restricted.
Though, it would be interesting to see one where they are less like that and more like they interact and have to work together because they all control wildly different industries, and to make society, and thus themselves, they have to work together. So less of a ”work together for more profits” and more of a ”we have to work together to make each other work and get profits.” Someone please make this!
Evilness of megacorps
Anyone who knows me knows I am an optimist, but those who know me also know I am a realist and that there is a reason that I say that people are bastard coated bastards with bastard filling. In my post on colonialism and slavery, I talk about how awful people are due to greed, and let’s face it, now is not going to be any different.
When the motive is profit, morality tends to be thrown out with the baby, bath water, the dog, the cat, the chicken, the husband, and the kitchen sink. So it is hardly surprising that megacorps are portrayed as almost always exclusively evil. The individuals that are harmed in the name of profit are obscured by statistics and the sheer scale of things. And it is perfectly natural that they are viewed as evil because… yeah, they kind of are, often. We all know what fast fashion industries are like and that any international company on earth does morally repugnant actions in the name of profit.
But I ask you this now… does it have to be so? Well, no. Megacorps don’t need to be inherently evil. As I discussed in my post on government, good despots have existed, they are just very rare due to many reasons. So for megacorps, it is usually the same problem: whoever is in charge is incentivised to do immoral actions in the name of profit.
But with popularity and right structures, good people can be in charge of a megacorp, and as long as they don’t drive the megacorp into the ground, they can use the extreme influence of the megacorp for good in the world while also still being for profit.
Of course, this does not in any way invalidate the idea that megacorps are mostly evil, I just want to say that it doesn’t have to be so IF you structure it correctly and set it up. But it all depends on what role you want the megacorp to serve in your story and world.
Private Military Companies
Believe it or not, these are a real thing even on Earth. As the name suggests, they are private, aka not the government. They are companies, and they specialise in military-related stuff. So you have your own small privately owned army. In the modern era on Earth, they are quite liked by a lot of governments. Why, you ask? Well, you see…
The reason is that you can assign them a mission and no matter how it goes, as a government, you win. They fail? That was a rogue corporation working on its own, and you have to take no responsibility. If they succeed, well you got what you wanted, then! So everyone is a winner! Except if they suddenly start working for the enemy because the enemy pays more. Almost like the problem with mercenaries has never changed in the 3000 years we’ve had them.
So of course, megacorps can have and almost always do have a PMC division of its enormous megacorp structure. It needs ways to enforce its will through force. The thing about the monopoly on violence by the government? Forget about that! Megacorps can do violence, too! Using their PMC if they want, private police, or even mercenaries that they hire.
Though again, keep in mind that all of these are only as loyal as the money stretches; the thing is that megacorps can pay a lot to secure loyalty, but so can another megacorp. It would be fun to read a story or see where it is a civil war but it is between megacorps duking it out like a war.
Summa Summarum
This is hardly everything on megacorps, and given their prominence in fiction, I will inevitably at some point do a review of a megacorp or two; might even do a practicum on it! But here are some basics to think on when you do megacorps and decide what they will look like. Which of the 4 parts do they have? All? Just some? Keep in mind, all 4 are gradients, and you can be more on one and less on another and not have any be full blown.
Think on these things, for as I hope my blog has shown about my opinions, nuances are what makes worldbuilding interesting.
Good luck!
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Copyright ©️ 2025 Vivian Sayan. Original ideas belong to the respective authors. Generic concepts such as megacorps, monopolies, monopsonies, and vertical and horizontal integration are general knowledge or copyrighted under Creative Commons with attribution, and any derivatives must also be Creative Commons. However, specific language or exact phrasing are individually copyrighted by the respective authors. Contact them for information on usage and questions if uncertain what falls under Creative Commons. We’re almost always happy to give permission. Please contact the authors through this website’s contact page.
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