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The E-Cig Market Grows Up
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By Rich Duprey | More Articles
March 26, 2014 | Comments (3)

Aside from the fact that the electronic-cigarette market has grown from virtually nothing to $1.7 billion in annual sales in a little over five years, one sign of the industry's maturation is the segmentation and innovation that's occurring absent government regulation. Having moved beyond simple nicotine replacement therapy, the industry now also encompasses "vaping" and "tanks," where users take pride in decking out their "mods" with bling as they enjoy flavored juices that they drip on coils.

Of course, politicians, anti-smoking crusaders, and regulators are trying to snuff out this cycle of growth and ingenuity through taxes, regulations, and prohibition, but the genie is already out of the bottle and it may be too difficult to contain it once again.

According to Wells Fargo, which assiduously tracks the e-cig market, sales are expected to hit $10 billion by 2017. That's still just a relatively small percentage of the overall $100 billion tobacco industry, but with triple-digit growth rates still in its future, e-cigs have the potential to eventually surpass tobacco sales.