A Walled Garden

A Walled Garden is a closed ecosystem where the operator of the ecosystem controls all the operations. It is often the best way to have a profitable business in the maturing days of an industry.

For example:

• The 1970s telecommunication industry. At one point, only phone devices the telecoms operator manufactured could be connected to their network.
• Apple controls the iOS ecosystem by having control over iOS applications.

In the Digital Marketing field, you reached the Walled Garden level when your clients have to use your entire marketing stack to run their campaigns.