Horizontal integration refers to the process of increasing market shares or expanding by integrating at the same level of the supply chain, and within the same industry. Vertical integration happens when a company takes control of more parts of the supply chain, thus covering more parts of it.
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Quick glance at Vertical Integration
Vertical integration is about moving upward, or downward the supply chain to either get closer to product sourcing and manufacturing, therefore improve quality or quality control over the steps it takes to make the product.
Or moving toward the end customer, thus getting closer to the customers . Or both ways.
Luxottica case study
Luxottica business model is a great example of vertical integration, and how over the years it managed to control the overall supply chain, both from a manufacturing standpoint, and a retail standpoint.
Google KaiOS case study
When Google put his assistant on millions of phones running the KaiOS operating system, those feature phones turned smartphones, became the basis for Google’s assistant to gather valuable data.
That is how a digital vertically integrated pipeline looks like.
Quick glance at Horizontal Integration
Horizontal integration refers to the process of increasing market shares or expanding by integrating at the same level of the supply chain, and within the same industry. Perhaps, a manufacturer who buys or merges with another manufacturer, in the same industry, is an example of horizontal integration.
Facebook acquired Instagram and kept it as independent product (for a few years)
Back in 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram, for a billion dollar. What seemed expensive at the time, for a mobile app that wasn’t profitable, it became among the most valuable products for the Facebook portfolio.
The horizontal acquisition of Instagram enabled Facebook to dominate the social media industry for yet another decade.
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