Spatial logic at different scales: An empirical study on emerging online catering in Beijing

Abstract

Rapid development of online economy has great impact on the everyday life. However, whether real space still matter on the location choice of these new economies remains as a controversial question. This research starts with spatial analysis on shared kitchen as an emerging new type of online catering space in Beijing across three scales: city, street, architecture. Using social media data and cellular signal data, different density factors are tested at city scale to explain the performance of these economies. Using space syntax model, the spatial accessibility of takeaway only, dine-in with takeaway service and conventional restaurants are compared in central and suburban areas. It is found that their different spatial logic: at city scale, takeaway only restaurants gathered in the high-density area, and diffused to the area with poor accessibility. At street and architectural scale, online catering in general shows higher dependence on accessibility, but there is a clear difference between central and suburban cases of takeaway only restaurants: in central areas, online catering could bear more disadvantageous positions like backstreet or under the ground of buildings than it in suburban case.