Learn in the textbookTypes of Standards and Code Systems
DefinitionA de facto standard (デファクトスタンダード) is a product or specification from one company or group that came to be treated as the standard in practice because so many people in the market used it.
ExplanationIt needs no review or approval by a public body: once users and other companies line up behind the specification, it does the job of a standard. PC operating systems and keyboard layouts are examples of specifications that won out in competition. Some are later adopted again as official standards after they have spread.
AnalogyNobody assigned the seats, yet after everyone keeps sitting in the same spot, that becomes the class seating plan.
Memory hookDe facto is Latin for "in fact": not what the rules say, but how things actually are.