PR of the sites can give you a pretty good gauge. You should also note the number of backlinks to the site.
11 million isn't too intimidating, most of those aren't actually optimizing for what you want anyways. I have a site that is now ranked 29 out of 18 million. And I created a blog that my fiancee posts on at least once daily that ranks 9 (and 10) out of 75 million (haven't started to monetize that blog yet.)
Once you know what the competition is doing, just do more.