network effect

network effect (plural network effects)

1. (economics) The higher growth rate of businesses with higher market share in those segments of economy in which the value of a product or service depends on the compounding effects of the number of existing users of the product or a service, as is the case with telephone networks.
   • 2014, Astra Taylor, chapter 4, in The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN:

     Aided by preferential attachment and network effects (the phenomenon of a good or service becoming more valuable the more people who use it), a handful of winners emerge, overshadowing other available options.