We currently estimate the user decline to slow down in the coming years, but if Perfect World continues to cede ground to its competitors, the actual user numbers could fall much below our estimate, and this could mean a significant downside to our price estimate for Perfect World.

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These include the transaction costs inherent in a trading strategy (even if the cost of a trade has dropped dramatically in the past 10 years) and limited or no access to the vast computing power that competitors will be using to crunch the numbers.

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In the past four years demand for 212 numbers has more than tripled thanks to second lines, modems, faxes and the emergence of about 30 small competitors which, says Nynex, buy telephone numbers in blocks of 10, 000.

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So obviously there are up and down numbers, and obviously some of the competitors have faced challenges.

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Morgan has ranked high on the new measurement each week, and new numbers today show he topped his regular cable competitors.

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As the largest bank in terms of market capitalization, Wells Fargo has stunned investors with consistent growth in revenue and income figures quarter after quarter despite weak economic conditions which have made competitors including Bank of America and Citigroup work hard to just maintain their numbers.

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Intel can crank out vast numbers of chips that cram more transistors onto a slice of silicon than its competitors.

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EasyJet's passenger numbers have risen by 200% over the past five years, and most of its competitors are doing just as well.

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Admittedly these smaller firms are much harder to learn about and the numbers of new hires they make each year are relatively smaller than their larger, more established competitors.

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