What Is Vertical Integration?

Vertical integration is the “merger of companies at different stages of production and/or distribution in the same industry”. This can be much more beneficial to firms using pipelines rather than platforms because vertical integration can offer many supply chain advantages. For example, the ‘merger’ in different stages of production can lower overall costs due to getting rid of the ‘middle man’ and enhancing one’s responsibility of production under one roof allowing for managers to acquire more control. In most cases the advantages of vertical integration may deter companies from moving towards platform operations. However apple have very cleverly vertically integrated the production of apps for the apple IOS systems by only supplying one