Abstract:

The concept of sharing economy that is based on the new information and communication technologies has spread all over the world in recent decades. The encounter of technological innovation and the very traditional ideas of sharing has stimulated various forms of new economic growth. By changing the consumers' behavior in massive scale, the sharing economy also has a great impact on the urban economy and space. The rising of sharing economy and its various forms of business will surely impose a great impact on urban development. Being a typical sector of the sharing economy, the sharing short-term rental platform (SSRP), represented by Airbnb, is reshaping the traditional tourism and urban housing market since its early stage of development. To deliver a review of literature on the topic, this article first recalls the emergence and development of the concept SSRP, as well as the controversies caused by it. Second, by placing SSRP in the context of the traditional domains of hotel industry and urban housing market, the article explains the overlapping areas of the three domains, and what the impact of its further commercialization might be. Finally, through the analysis of a large number of empirical cases, the interactive relationship between SSRP and urban space is revealed. On the one hand, the socioeconomic and environmental factors in urban space determine the spatial distribution characteristics of the SSRP listings; on the other hand, the SSRP will gradually change the urban socioeconomic and environment space by tourism gentrification, the change of commercial structure, and the increased burden on urban facilities.

Key words: sharing economy, short-term rental, market, space, literature review