{
  "id": "network-effect.threshold",
  "term": "network effect",
  "sense": "threshold",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 14,
  "arena": "system.organized",
  "domain": "network.system",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "a change in a parameter that crosses a wall only when a previous state had already made the whole exceed its parts.",
  "folk_gloss": "the value of a thing increases when more people use it.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "parameter.condition",
      "wall.range-end",
      "whole.complete",
      "part.relation",
      "threshold.boundary"
    ],
    "interaction": "interaction.process",
    "novel_properties": [
      "greater-than-the-sum.excess"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The fax machine became widely adopted only after enough businesses owned one to make sending faxes useful.",
      "domain": "technology"
    },
    {
      "text": "The 2008 U.S. mortgage market collapsed when home ownership dropped below the threshold needed to sustain lending growth.",
      "domain": "economics"
    },
    {
      "text": "Bluetooth headphones replaced wired ones only after a critical mass of smartphones removed headphone jacks.",
      "domain": "consumer electronics"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "network effect"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — the whole exceeding its parts"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-network-effect.threshold"
}