Capitalism 2 and Capitalism Lab Forum

I'm working on the third scenario in the Capitalist campaign where you have to branch out from Seoul to Taipei. It seems that the AI has a huge lead in market share in just every profit making product. I don't know how to start. The few times I've played this scenario, I've failed. I just can't seem to make any kind of decent profit. The fact that you only start out with $12 mil and only have $1.5 that you can borrow seems to be really unfair to me. All the AI players start out with $50mil plus and already are making big profits. How am I supposed to break into this very crowded field and actually make money? Every time I try to start with a retail store it loses money. I don't have the luxury of lowering my prices to nothing to stimulate demand. I can't sustain prolonged loses.

Edit: Sorry, I noticed that somehow I double posted this. It was accidental.

You dont need to be market leader to make a profit, although obviously it helps.
Maybe try looking at some different cities, and see where they haven't yet penetrated?

Try looking at the CEO personalities too, it might give you a clue on how to approach it.

For example, if the leader is low on R&D, then maybe thats your inroad as a long goal.
Or if he is high on 'endure loss to avoid layoff' then its unlikely you can drive him out of a sector by undercutting him.

Maybe you can play the stock market for a few years, until you've made enough to really get going?
I've not played this scenario since I skipped Cap 2 and moved to Cap Lab, but my hunch is I would start with frozen goods, which are quite low outlay but can still profit early on.