What is a lock-in effect?

In a lock-in effect, the customer is involuntarily tied to a product or service.In economics and especially in marketing, the lock-in effect is generally understood to mean close customer loyalty to products/services or a provider, which makes it difficult for the customer to change the product or provider due to switching costs and other barriers to switching.A lock-in effect was evident, for example, in the purchase of Whatsapp by Facebook. This was not welcomed by a considerable number of users. Many do not want Facebook to analyze their personal messages and use them for targeted advertising. But despite competing products (such as Threema), many users continue to use Whatsapp. As long as a critical mass of users is not reached and they switch to a new platform, the lock-in effects of Whatsapp are too great for a change to be worthwhile from the user's point of view.Sources: Wikipedia, Business Innovation: The St. Gallen Model (Christian Hoffmann,Silke Lennerts,Christian Schmitz,Wolfgang Stölzle,Falk Uebernickel).