Editing Format war (section)

{{Short description|Competition between proprietary formats in the same market}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date = August 2015}}
{{Original research|date = June 2023}}
{{Lacking overview|date = June 2023}}
{{Prose|date=June 2023}}
}}
{{Use American English|date = March 2019}}

A '''format war''' is a competition between similar but mutually incompatible technical standards that compete for the same market, such as for [[data storage device]]s and [[recording format]]s for [[electronic media]]. It is often characterized by political and financial influence on [[Content (media and publishing)|content]] publishers by the developers of the technologies. Developing companies may be characterized as engaging in a format war if they actively oppose or avoid [[interoperable]] open-industry [[technical standard]]s in favor of their own.

A format war emergence can be explained because each vendor is trying to exploit cross-side network effects in a [[two-sided market]]. There is also a social force to stop a format war: when one of them wins as [[de facto standard|''de facto'' standard]], it solves a [[coordination problem]]<ref name="Ulmann">Edna Ullmann-Margalit: ''The Emergence of Norms'', Oxford Un. Press, 1977. (or Clarendon Press 1978)</ref> for the format users.{{dubious|date=December 2023}}