Brand new to looking into cryptocurrencies: what needs to happen to have the value of eth increase?

DApp is an acronym for Decentralized Application.
Ethereum has the ability of running generic code (as you probably know). DApps are a group of smart contracts that get uploaded to the blockchain and perform some kind of function without an owner.

On a normal financial application you would give your money to an entity (that takes care of it and charges you an administration fee). On a DApp version of a financial application, you give your money to a code running in the blockchain...since there is no owner, no one charges you a administration fee.