Investigation of e-commerce in China in a geographical perspective

In recent years, e-commerce has become a phenomenal symbol for the ongoing socio-economic transformation in China. Driven by the growth of the Internet and cyberspace, e-commerce changes both the traditional patterns of economic transactions and the social relations embedded in social activities. E-commerce is a new catalyst for economic growth in China as it reduces restrictions to market access and the costs of transaction. This research examines the geography of e-commerce in China within a theoretical framework grounded by social theory and neoclassical economics. After presenting a background of the development of e-commerce in China, the spatiality of e-commerce and its correlation to socio-economic variables are examined with both quantitative and geovisualization techniques. Results of this research address that the growth of e-commerce in China presents a nationwide inequality constrained by local economic, politic, and infrastructure conditions. The growth of e-commerce in China presents a hybrid feature in terms of spatiality, which relies on structures in both cyberspace and physical space. Policy implications and suggestions for future research were suggested based on these empirical results. A discussion of limitations associated with this research and a concluding note close the research.