Digitally accessible space: Discovery of the distinctive locational characteristics of restaurants with online reservation

Abstract

The widespread adoption of ICT including mobile apps and their online services has significantly reshaped human activities in urban spaces. The complex interaction between ICT on urban space presents challenges in understanding their relationships. This study aims to discover the empirical evidence of the spatial variance of urban space linked to ICT. To pursue this objective, this study defines spaces that leverage ICT-based activities as Digitally Accessible Spaces (DAS), and choose restaurants that provide online reservation services through NAVER, which is the most dominant search engine in South Korea. Based on fundamental measurements in location theory, we stratified the entire area in Seoul into four groups in order of profitability. Using the location quotient (LQ), we quantified the locational characteristics of DAS compared to overall restaurants. Consequently, three measurements, which are density of marketplace, distance from public transit, and proper land use, indicate that the second-tier profitable areas commonly possess the largest portion of DAS. These characteristics provided empirical evidence supporting previous studies highlighting the liberation effect and altered travel behavior resulting from ICT-based activity through qualitative and theoretical approaches. We expect that this study can contribute to further research related to the interaction between digital space and physical space.