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Is there any difference between a vertical and a niche?

by petemcal
2 replies
I hear people using the terms vertical and niche in pretty much interchangeably. Is there actually any specific difference between the meaning of the terms?

Thanks, Pete.
#difference #niche #vertical
  • Profile picture of the author Venturetothetop
    They have their roots in academic research so you have to think it about it as a structure.

    An industry is the top level - let's for example take my new industry which is video gaming.

    Everything within that industry can be broken down into sections such as online gaming, casual gaming, mmo's and so on.

    Our particular section or niche is Online Gaming, but that itself can be broken down again. It can be broken down into
    • People who play online via xbox
    • via playstation
    • people who play with randoms online
    • people who prefer to play with friends
    • and so on...

    We deal with people who prefer to play with friends online. That is our niche but all other elements in that list are our vertical.

    We are solving a pain for people who play online, so that is our niche but we have to be aware of the vertical, because it may be that we solve pains for many others in the vertical and thus increase our reach dramatically.

    So a niche is very defined, (some times referred to as sub niche) whilst a vertical is a movement up or down from your niche.

    There is also another term called a 'horizontal market'. Our product helps people who want to play online with their friends more often, but this same technology can be used in many other markets where friends want to quickly and easily organise get togethers. These will all be our horizontal markets - nothing to do with our original niche, but using the same technology to solve the same pain in a totally different niche.

    Hope that helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author petemcal
    Yeah that makes perfect sense. Thanks for a great explanation
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