Editing Horizontal integration (section)

{{Short description|Business process}}
{{Use American English|date = February 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date = February 2019}}
[[File:Integration in English.svg|thumb|right|A diagram illustrating horizontal integration and contrasting it with vertical integration]]
{{Marketing}}
{{Competition law}}
'''Horizontal integration''' is the process of a [[company]] increasing [[production (economics)|production]] of goods or services at the same level of the [[value chain]], in the same industry. A company may do this via [[Organic growth|internal expansion]] or through [[mergers and acquisitions]].{{r|b1|b2|b3}}

The process can lead to [[monopoly]] if a company captures the vast majority of the market for that product or service.{{r|b3}} Benefits of horizontal integration include: increasing [[economies of scale]], [[Market penetration|expanding an existing market]], and improving [[product differentiation]]. 

Horizontal integration contrasts with [[vertical integration]], where companies integrate multiple stages of production of a small number of production units.