Spatio-Temporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of E-Sports Industry: A Case Study of Shanghai

As an emerging industry formed by the integration of multiple industries, the e-sports industry contributes to urban development, economic growth, and promotion of urban image owing to the characteristics of low pollution, strong driving effect, and high social influence. However, the e-sport industry is a new industry with limited studies about the general features, evolutionary mechanism, and spatial dynamics. As an e-sports industry center in China, Shanghai has the most complete e-sports industry chain and the largest industrial scale. This study takes Shanghai as a classical case to explore the spatial evolution process, features, and influencing factors of the e-sports industry using the spatial analysis methods, including the kernel density estimation, nearest neighbor index, and the Kriging spatial interpolation analysis based on the data mining of Shanghai e-sports enterprises from 2006 to 2018. The results show that, first, according to factors such as historical background, policy support, and deve