Horizontal vs. Vertical

Understand the core concepts of horizontal and vertical business strategies in technology. Learn how vertical businesses offer comprehensive solutions for specific industries while horizontal businesses excel by serving diverse customers. Discover the historical and practical implications of these models, including their impact on product development and company vision.

We'll cover the following...

- Basic split in tech strategy
- Interdependent architectures to modular ones
- - Apple (vertical) vs. Android (horizontal)
- - Bundling (vertical) vs. unbundling (horizontal)
    - Maturation of technology
- - Pursuing both can signal a lack of vision

Basic split in tech strategy

The basic split in tech strategy is horizontal vs. vertical businesses.

If you work on infrastructure, you might be familiar with “horizontal vs. vertical scaling”. This is different. Here we are talking with respect to your customers.

Vertical business

If your business is designed from the ground up to serve a single industry or customer profile, you are a vertical business. Vertical businesses typically grow by offering more and more capabilities to serve the customers they have, despite these features existing as standalone offerings elsewhere. The goal is to be a “one stop shop”. User experience can be mindblowing when it is vertically integrated- but frustrating when limitations arise.

Horizontal business

If your business can be used by customers across any industry, you are a horizontal business. Horizontal businesses typically grow by reaching more and more kinds of customers, building any integrations required, or adding ...