Reshaping China’s economic landscape: Geo-visualization of urban networks based on live streaming commerce data

Abstract

Live streaming commerce (LSC), an emerging digital trade paradigm, has facilitated information flows in China’s platform economy. However, few studies have investigated how LSC has reshaped China’s economic landscape. The findings of this study reveal that LSC has reconfigured China’s urban network into a quadrilateral structure. The structure is anchored by the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and Xi’an urban agglomerations, whose inter-node flows account for over 75% of those of the entire country. Compared to the traditional ‘diamond structure’ of China’s regional economic development pattern, the LSC flows between cities within the quadrilateral region are stronger. The study shows that LSC production-oriented cities are geographically clustered in eastern coastal areas with well-developed manufacturing and e-commerce industrial clusters, whereas LSC consumption-oriented cities are principally located in the provincial capitals, where the local consumer culture is open-minded and therefore favourable for recreational activities.