Abstract

This research explores platform urbanism from the critical approach that previous studies in South Korea have not sufficiently addressed platformization as an urban spatial phenomenon. In particular, this research analyzes the way how platform and urban space relate by focusing on the locations and scapes of 29 food delivery shop-in-shop stores on Sinchon area in Seoul. Shop-in-shop is a business type that operates multiple sub-brands simultaneously in one store, and they are easily managed to add, change and delete brands through delivery platforms. In order to reveal the transformation of urban culture facilitated by delivery platforms, this research set the following research questions: 1) How do the different logic of platform and urban space intermingle in shop-in-shop stores on Sinchon?" and 2) How do these logics of location affect the foodscapes? The studied stores that managed shop-in-shop food delivery were (re)constructing store locations that mix online and offline spatialities by articulating online platform logics and the local conditions of offline spaces under favorable conditions for their business. In addition, many of them were producing “dark” foodscapes at the store scale that precluded access other than by delivery bike, in contrast to their mobile efforts for attracting customers to their sub-brands. Through this analysis, this research confirms that the logic of platform is not transplanted 'just as it is' into urban space, but platform city is co-constructed in the process of establishing relationships between platform logics and local factors in urban space.