The paper uses a unique dataset comprising a population of new ventures that enter the UK market in 1998. The data comprises services as well as manufacturing industries. The central hypothesis is that new ventures are differently affected by industry competition and growth in dynamic compared to static markets. Estimation of a hazard function supports this hypothesis. In dynamic markets the survival of new ventures is increasing in industry concentration and decreasing in growth. The same is not true for static markets. The results shed new insights into the dynamics of entrants and highlight some important effects for competition policy.