The 11 Most Iconic Corporate Rivalries of All Time

Most Intense Corporate Rivalries in Business History

Posted by: Scott Kalapos on Apr 23, 2025

Succeeding in business is all about doing things the right way. You need to offer the best products, best services, and best user experience, all while promoting in the most effective way possible. In some industries, there is enough differentiation, and the competition isn’t as fierce. In others, rising to the top is tough and is a constant dog-eat-dog, almost warlike existence in the corporate world.

Outperforming, outlasting, and outfighting your toughest competitors is sometimes the only way to be recognized as the universal industry leader. There are full-blown storylines, complete with plot twists, commercial jabs, courtroom drama, and cultural impact between competing companies. From the soda aisle to the search bar, these rivalries have shaped industries and left lasting impressions on everything from what we wear to how we scroll.

We’ve examined the fiercest feuds in corporate history. These rival companies are the ones that turned product launches into punchlines, made ad campaigns into cultural moments, and proved that a little competition can go a long way. Take a look at the face-offs that built business empires and the lessons we can learn from competing companies.

1. Coca-Cola vs Pepsi

Arguably, the most famous corporate rivalry is the battle between Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The Coke vs Pepsi battle, dubbed by pop culture as the "Cola Wars”, has pitted these two soft drink giants against each other, battling for your refrigerator space.

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, established in 1886, had long dominated the soft drink market even though Pepsi launched just a few years later in 1898. It was when Pepsi merged with Frito-Lay to form the current PepsiCo corporation that they made a serious push to dethrone Coke.

Coca-Cola's long-standing tradition of creating promotional merchandise and television advertisements became a model for PepsiCo to adapt. Pepsi gained ground with an innovative marketing strategy, the "Pepsi Challenge" in 1975. They aired commercials of blind taste tests that often favored Pepsi. This sparked the beginning of the “Cola Wars” (opens in a new window).

In response to the Pepsi Challenge, Coca-Cola introduced "New Coke" in 1985. This ultimately was a misstep that reinforced consumer loyalty to the original formula. Pepsi would follow with a "Drink Pepsi, Get Stuff" campaign, where consumers would earn points to redeem for gifts and company swag every time you bought a Pepsi product.

At one point, the company jokingly offered a Harrier Jet to anyone who could submit 7 million Pepsi points. Through a combination of points and cash, one man actually managed to reach this milestone, but was denied his jet when a court ruled that a reasonable individual would assume the jet deal was just a joke. The "Get Stuff" campaign did not continue for very long after this incident.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi have both had many celebrities appear in their ads over the years. They've also taken many shots at each other in their advertising. Some of the more humorous and good-natured ones can be observed in the following video:

2. Nike vs Adidas

This isn’t just a corporate rivalry, it’s a battle of brands that influence everything from the World Cup to high fashion. Nike, founded in 1964, exploded in the 1980s with the debut of Air Jordans and the unforgettable "Just Do It" slogan. Adidas, with roots tracing back to 1949 in Germany, had already built a reputation in soccer, track and field, and European streetwear.

For decades, the two have competed fiercely for athlete endorsements, market share, and cultural relevance. Nike sparked success nobody could've dreamed of in the early 1970s when the company created its innovative "waffle soles". This new shoe sole pattern proved very popular and is still being used in many models to this day.

Initially, companies competing with Nike were brands like the now Boston-based Reebok. Reebok also had its own famous innovation, which came in the form of the Reebok Pump. This was a specialized shoe tongue that could be custom-filled with air to create a better fit around the ankle. Eventually, Nike’s famous "swoosh" logo and "Just Do It" slogan became pop culture staples in the USA and abroad. In order to compete with Nike, Adidas acquired Reebok in 2006.

Today, Nike dominates in basketball and many American sports, including Major League Baseball, where they have a partnership in place until 2029. Adidas leads in global sports like soccer, being the partner of the World Cup since 1970, with an agreement going into 2030. Adidas has made major inroads in lifestyle wear and sustainability.

Nike catapulted its success when it signed an endorsement deal with Michael Jordan (opens in a new window) and continue to grow business with golf star Tiger Woods. The endorsement success led Nike to sign megastars like LeBron James and Serena Williams too. Adidas followed suit with athlete signings that include Lionel Messi and Patrick Mahomes. Adidas also partners with music and fashion icons like Beyoncé and Pharrell. Both brands have extended far beyond the locker room.

The 2020s have brought new battlefields in areas like sustainability, direct-to-consumer models, and digital innovation. Nike launched its .SWOOSH Web3 platform and remains a DTC leader, while Adidas has pushed forward with eco-friendly initiatives, including shoes made from ocean plastic and recyclable designs. Whether it’s three stripes or a swoosh, this is a rivalry that’s as much about identity and culture as it is about gear.

As is the case with Coke and Pepsi, Nike and Adidas fought it out plenty of times on the small screen in commercials. Here's a cheeky commercial, Adidas:

3. McDonald's vs Burger King

In the world of fast food, McDonald's and Burger King are the two corporations with the biggest beef, and we're not talking about just burgers. These two fast food behemoths have been in fierce competition since the 1950s. The first Burger King restaurant opened in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1953, as "Insta Burger King", while the first McDonald's restaurant, at least in the form that we know it today, opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955.

McDonald's was technically a single-location drive-in restaurant opened by Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino in 1940, but businessman Ray Kroc visited the location in 1952 and went on his own to build it as a franchise shortly after. Neither fast food giant was really first to the party, though, as White Castle has been around since 1921 (opens in a new window).

Most everyone in North America is quite personally familiar with the Big Mac and Whopper feud, Ronald McDonald, and the Burger King. The rivalry got particularly heated in a 1982 Burger King commercial featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar, who at the time was 5 years old.

This is one of the first commercials in which a company directly stated its superiority to another, and it eventually led to a lawsuit. The Whopper to McDonald's' fledgling McDLT. The McDLT was the first attempt by McDonald's to put out a lettuce and tomato style hamburger. It was a popular item for Mickey D’s, but it was eventually discontinued as its packaging design wasn't exactly environmentally friendly. Burger King was crowned the victor in this commercial battle, but the larger market share and profitability still are claimed by the Golden Arches.

4. Macy's vs Gimbel's

In the early 20th century, Macy's and Gimbels were titans of retail, especially in New York City. While the former is still in existence, the latter ceased to be in 1987 after exactly 100 years in business. These two chains were fierce competitors, so much so that their feud became a recurring element in popular culture.

References to the rivalry between these two companies appeared in entertainment as early as the 1940s. While both companies had several locations, it is the flagship New York City stores that everyone remembers most. The Macy's location still stands at Herald Square, whereas the NYC Gimbel's stood just a short distance away on West 31st Street in Manhattan. These companies clashed frequently, in a sort of "anything you can do, I can do better" sort of dynamic.

The Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition was spawned by the Philadelphia Gimbel's in 1920 (opens in a new window), and Macy's rolled out its own version in 1924 in New York. Although they sold similar products, one of the key differences between the two department store titans was in the demographics they served. Macy's had the image of being the more uptown store with a more upper-class target audience, while Gimbel's catered to more middle-class demographics, offering lower-priced items for the customer base.

Though young people today may not know Gimbel's directly, there is certainly no shortage of popular culture references to the now-defunct chain. The Macy's vs Gimbel's rivalry has been mentioned on television shows such as The Simpsons, The White Shadow, Once Upon a Time, The Goldbergs, and more. Their battles have also made it to the big screen in films including Elf, Out to Sea, Fitzwilly, and most famously, Miracle on 34th Street.

The depiction of the rivalry in Miracle on 34th Street gave us the phrase "Does Macy's tell Gimbels?", a symbol of competitive secrecy.

5. Instagram (Meta) vs. TikTok

When TikTok burst onto the scene in 2018, it didn’t just disrupt social media, it rewired it. Suddenly, Instagram’s curated grids looked a little too polished, and attention spans started shrinking even faster than video lengths. Meta tried hard, but eventually it could sit out any longer.

In 2020, Meta responded to TikTok with Instagram Reels, an almost frame-for-frame answer to TikTok’s short-form, vertical video format. While Instagram had the infrastructure, TikTok had the cultural edge. The For You Page algorithm became an obsession, helping content go viral overnight and creating a new class of influencers in record time.

Today, the rivalry is fierce, and the stakes are high. TikTok leads in Gen Z engagement and average time spent on app per user (opens in a new window). Instagram continues to fight back with Reels bonuses for creators, algorithm tweaks, and tighter integration with Facebook’s ad platform.

These days, both platforms are betting big on in-app shopping, creator tools, and AI-powered content discovery. In the U.S., however, TikTok faces regulatory hurdles. TikTok is a Chinese-owned company, and the U.S. government has called for it to be banned (opens in a new window) on more than one occasion. Meta deals with scrutiny over its data practices and platform changes, but has never been forced to go offline. Creators are hedging their bets by cross-posting everything.

Instagram might still be the king of brand deals, but TikTok is where trends start. And when it comes to influence in 2025, attention is the new currency. So far, there is no clear winner here. Both platforms are in a race to own it, but there was a breif trend on TikTok as was set to be banned where influencers made confessions about their content. The ban didn’t last and the influencers have to live with their secrets being out in the open (and shared on other social media platforms!)

6. Nintendo vs Sega

Anyone growing up in the 1980s and 1990s is well aware of the immense rivalry between Nintendo and Sega. After the video game crash of 1983, these were the two main console producers to emerge from the ashes and start what is now known as the Third Generation of video game consoles.

Nintendo got its start in the late 19th century in Japan. Originally, it was a company that produced handmade playing cards for a game called Hanafuda, which was and still is quite popular in Japan.

By the mid-20th century, Nintendo was producing playing cards for a variety of games, some of which included images of iconic American cartoon characters. They also began producing small electric toys and tabletop games around this time. Their first actual console was called the Nintendo Color TV Game, a modest console that never made it to North American markets.

Sega also has roots in Japan, beginning in the 1960s. The company's original focus was on large arcade-style games that were coin-operated. These games were successful, but they weren’t a household name. Their first console available to gamers in North America and the UK was the 8-bit Sega Master System.

This console came to the USA in 1987 as a direct competitor to the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), which was released in the USA in 1985. The NES was far more popular thanks to its established name recognition, larger library of games, and exclusive deals with game companies.

Now known as the "Bit Wars" (opens in a new window), this rivalry heated up in 1989 when Sega introduced the 16-bit Genesis console. The new system had a very large library, better graphics, and faster processing, and it introduced Sega's own flagship character, Sonic the Hedgehog, to compete with Nintendo's Mario. Nintendo soon followed by introducing its own 16-bit system, the Super Nintendo.

The rivalry spread into new products, including handheld games with Nintendo's Game Boy squaring off against Sega's Game Gear. The Game Boy ultimately had the competitive advantage due to longer battery life and library of games.

Things went downhill for Sega in the mid-1990s when it rolled out the wildly unsuccessful 32X and the modestly successful Sega Saturn. The Nintendo 64 left the Saturn in the dust. The competitive landscape has since grown with the addition of the Sony PlayStation and then the Xbox.

Before Sega dwindled out of popularity, the "Sega does what Nintendon't" marketing campaign played on the superiority of the 16-bit Genesis over the 8-bit NES.

7. Microsoft vs Apple

The business rivalry between Microsoft and Apple has changed the way that the majority of people live their lives and run their businesses. Microsoft and Apple have been at odds since the late 1970s. Bill Gates was at the helm of Microsoft, and Steve Jobs was the driving force behind Apple.

What many people don't know is that there has been an on-and-off collaboration between Microsoft and Apple since the companies were still startups. Microsoft engineers and technology were hugely important in creating the first Apple personal computer and Mac operating systems.

Apple's introduction of the Macintosh in 1984 brought graphical user interfaces to the masses, a concept Microsoft expanded upon with Windows. Both were based around a user-friendly graphical interface, something that had not been seen in personal computing prior. While Jobs accused Gates of stealing the idea, Gates stated that Xerox had actually developed the initial functionality of the graphical interface, which both companies attempted to mimic.

After Jobs was ousted from his own company in 1985, Microsoft began to dominate the personal computer market. In the late 90s, Jobs was back with the company and reached out to Microsoft for help rebuilding Apple. Microsoft accepted, and for a while, the truce was restored. Things worked out quite well, and by the decade's end, Apple was well on its way to restoring its former glory.

The feud slowly returned as both companies began to branch out into other product offerings. Microsoft entered the video game market with the Xbox, while Apple developed a successful smartphone, the iPhone, and iPod MP3 players.

At the present moment, the two companies are in an era of relative peace, but their devoted fan bases certainly are as opposed to each other as ever. Talk to any Microsoft or Apple loyalist and you're sure to hear the term "fanboy" lobbed by both camps more times than you can count.

A video from 2007 shows Bill Gates and Steve Jobs participating in a dual interview. You can gain insights into both companies and their primary directors.

8. Ford vs GM

The automotive industry has its fair share of rivalries, but few business rivalries are as enduring, or as American, as Ford vs. General Motors. These two automakers have been going head-to-head since the early 20th century, defining how the U.S. drives, innovates, and competes globally. Ford was the company responsible for creating the Model T, the first mass-produced automobile available to the public at a price the average consumer could afford.

General Motors responded to the Model T with a Chevrolet car known as the 490. A vehicle with more power and a more sophisticated instrument panel than that offered by the Model T. It came with a higher price tag than the Model T, and out of these two automobiles, a rivalry that still lives today was born.

Ford and Chevrolet would continue to compete as automakers and as lifestyle brands throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century. The '57 Chevy would go on to become a symbolic piece of Americana, an entity almost synonymous with the decade. Though they received less fanfare, Ford's 1957 models actually outsold those of Chevrolet.

The next battle was over speed, but unlike the supercar rivalry between Lamborghini and Ferrari, this battle was between muscle cars. The Ford Mustang first hit American streets in the early 1960s. The Corvette and eventually the Chevrolet Camaro became the rival and competitor of the Mustang.

As the years went on, the primary area of competition for Ford and Chevrolet became their trucks. Both companies offer an assortment of light and mid-size pickups, as well as large and extra-large trucks. Ford's F-150, Ranger, and Super-Duty Trucks have faced fierce competition from Chevrolet's Colorado, Sierra, and Silverado.

You'll hear many Chevrolet loyalists say that Ford stands for "Fix of Repair Daily", while Ford fans will tell you that Chevrolets are "The best trucks you'll ever push." Now, the rivalry is shifting into the electric era. Ford’s F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E are taking on GM’s Chevrolet Silverado EV, Cadillac Lyriq, and a reimagined electric Corvette. Both companies are also racing to scale battery tech, autonomous driving capabilities, and American-made supply chains to meet ambitious EV goals.

Chevy and Ford have taken jabs at each other with their commercials in the past. One of our favorites is this winner by Chevy:

9. Amazon vs Walmart

Amazon and Walmart represent the clash between e-commerce and traditional retail. They have very different backstories and ways of operating, but are still fierce competitors. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, even targeting to grow larger than Walmart as one of his top goals.

Walmart was founded by Sam Walton, with the first location opening in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. Walton's primary vision was to establish a retail store that would sell items at low prices, but in large quantities. The high-volume sales strategy was a smashing success, and Walmart grew to become the largest retailer in the world in terms of yearly revenue.

Seattle-based Amazon (formerly Cadabra) started out as a bookseller, but soon shifted to become the largest online retailer for nearly all categories of ecommerce. Then Amazon branched into streaming services, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. Amazon went from a small business in 1994 to owning warehouses, shipping centers, delivery services, and corporate offices combined to employ approximately 1,608,000 people (opens in a new window).

Walmart has now launched its own ecommerce services and in-person services like pharmacies and vision clinics that Amazon does not offer. Walmart also entered the grocery game, but in 2017, Amazon responded with an acquisition of Whole Foods (opens in a new window).

Amazon continues to expand with its launch of Amazon Go convenience stores, its first attempt at brick-and-mortar locations. In these stores, customers can enter and complete purchases without a single interaction with another human being. On the other hand, Walmart continues to expand its digital avenues, partnering with Google for its Voice Over app to enhance the customer experience for grocery shopping and launching an e-commerce subscription marketplace similar to Amazon’s model.

The video below compares and contrasts Walmart and Amazon and makes some interesting, educated guesses about hypothetical future clashes between the two.

10. Boeing vs Airbus

Nearly every passenger on any commercial flight within the past 20 years has likely traveled in a plane produced by either Boeing or Airbus. There have been a handful of commercial aircraft and aircraft engines since the dawn of aviation, but the field has grown smaller since the 1980s.

Boeing and Airbus emerged as the undisputed industry leaders. Both specialize in the creation of airplanes that are lightweight, fuel-efficient, and cost-effective. Of the two, Airbus is the newer kid on the block, with American-based Boeing starting in 1916 to the 1970 launch of the European Airbus company.

Both companies have thrived on a competitive strategy of innovation, constantly seeking to outperform each other. They keep competition to a minimum by buying out competitors and grabbing large pieces of the market share. Each rival accuses the other of shady tactics and favorable government treatment. The environment became hostile enough that tariffs have gone back and forth (opens in a new window) between the US and European governments on jets and airplane parts.

Airbus gained an edge after two tragic accidents led to the grounding of Boeing's new 737 MAX fleet of jets in 2019. The A320 series of Airbus planes continues to grow in popularity, while Boeing has faced a handful of incidents in the past few years.

Below is a fun and educational video that spots some of the differences between the aircraft produced by Airbus and Boeing, helping to determine what type of plane you're boarding the next time you fly.

11. Facebook vs MySpace

In the world of social media these days, options range from Facebook to Snapchat, TikTok to X, formerly Twitter. In the mid-00s, we had Vine, AOL Instant Messenger, and Friendster, but MySpace was the king of social media. How did this popular site fall so quickly to newcomer Facebook? It wasn’t really anything Facebook did, but more internal circumstances with MySpace.

MySpace was conceived by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, former employees of eUniverse, parent of the world's first true social media network, Friendster. The pair saw a key flaw with Friendster. You couldn’t join without being invited by a pre-existing member. They'd developed a prototype for an alternative social network where anyone could join, making "Tom" a default friend for anyone who signed up.

Facebook in its earliest days, was a very basic platform. It was limited to college students and did not offer much in the ways of user and advertiser capabilities. MySpace was highly customizable and could be joined by virtually anyone.

In 2005, Mark Zuckerberg actually offered to sell Facebook to MySpace for $75 million. Anderson and DeWolfe declined, and that same year, they were bought out by NewsCorp, a media conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch. The money from the sale was great, but this transaction was the beginning of the end for MySpace.

With MySpace under corporate control, its owners and development team had far more restrictions and far less autonomy when it came to making changes. The coding language it was built in was not very flexible, and was not able to effectively handle the huge number of users it was acquiring.

In addition, as ads were introduced, they became intrusive and detrimental to the user experience. The MySpace team knew changes needed to be made, but by late 2006, they were no longer a top priority for NewsCorp. Facebook remained an independent company and was not impeded by such barriers to change. It was able to quickly evolve and become a more inclusive, intuitive, and user-friendly service. After it opened to public sign-ups in 2006. Its popularity skyrocketed. By June of 2008, it surpassed MySpace in number of users.

NewsCorp eventually sold MySpace, and Anderson and DeWolfe left the company. Since that time, the network has seen a parade of redesigns and attempts at targeting new markets. MySpace is only a shell of what it once was. Users dropped, and a faulty server migration lost much of the data from before 2016.

In the 2000s, CNET compared Facebook and MySpace. An interesting aspect of this video is that it was made in 2008, which was the year in which Facebook surpassed MySpace as the most popular social media network in the world.

Honorable Mention: ChatGPT vs Google Gemini

As the digital world continues to change, we see new rivalries popping up daily. One of the newest industries for competing companies is in the artificial intelligence space. AI has been around for longer than most of us are aware, but when OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, it sparked a generative AI arms race.

Within months, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer app in history, amassing 100 million users by January 2023. Suddenly, search engines, productivity apps, and even marketing teams had serious competition.

Google, in an effort not to be out-innovated, responded with Bard in early 2023. The rush to launch Bard was fast, but the results were not as impressive to users. Google dove back into tinkering and tweaking their tech. They soon rebranded the supercharged version of Bard as Gemini.

Gemini is designed to work across Google’s entire existing ecosystem, an asset ChatGPT does not have. You’ll now find Gemini in Gmail, Docs, and Android. This is Google’s most ambitious attempt to make AI a core part of how we work and live.

Today, we see ChatGPT shine in long-form content generation, creative tasks, and custom workflows with its GPTs and plugin capabilities. Gemini plays to Google’s strengths, with real-time search integration, deep knowledge graphs, and productivity tools tied to its massive suite of services.

In 2025, this rivalry is only just heating up. Both are racing to become your default assistant. They want to be there to summarize emails, help you code an app, or plan a vacation. Currently, Google claims Gemini 1.5 Pro can handle up to 1 million tokens of context (opens in a new window), more than any publicly available language model to date.

This corporate rivalry isn’t just about who builds the smartest bot, it’s about who builds the tech we come to rely on for task automation and assistance. The future of search, productivity, and even creativity is being written right now, prompt by prompt.

Competing Companies Reveal a Lot about Business

From cola clashes and sneaker wars to algorithmic face-offs and AI throwdowns, these corporate rivalries aren't just about who has the better product, they’re about who can tell a better story, build stronger loyalty, and adapt faster to change.

The biggest takeaway? Competition fuels innovation. Whether it’s a startup taking on a legacy brand or two titans locked in a century-long standoff, every jab, launch, and campaign pushes the industry forward. Rivalries force companies to sharpen their edge, focus on their audience, and show up smarter, faster, and bolder.

While only one company can technically “win,” it’s often the consumer who comes out on top. We get better choices, cooler tech, and a front-row seat to the business world’s greatest showdowns.

When you're planning your next campaign or building your own ecommerce empire, don’t shy away from the competition. Embrace it. Learn from it. And maybe throw a little shade (the clever kind, of course), to let the rivalries rage on.

Every great rivalry starts with visibility. Whether you're launching a new product, gearing up for an event, or just want to stay top-of-mind, the right promotional products can help you compete and win.