The Impact of Platform Economies on the Urban Structure

In the digital age, cities are more and more organized around platform economies. These digitally based platforms are redefining urban life and transforming our relationship with space and people, with the consequences becoming more and more evident, currently even exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis. The aim of this article is therefore to analyze the ongoing transformation, using the 3-P-Model, developed in the book Three Pillars of Organization and Leadership in Disruptive Times: Navigating Your Company Successfully Through the 21st Century Business World (Wollmann, P.; Kühn, F.: Kempf, M. (Ed.) (2020); Cham/CH: Springer Nature), and identify the urban dimension of platform economy leaders, such as Airbnb, to measure its economic and social impact. The first part of the article focuses on some generic characters of the business model of platform economy leaders such as the model’s creative aspects, its geographical dimensions, and its global nature. The second part focuses on the costs and benefits of an urban economy based on digital platforms and, in particular, the case of Airbnb. Through a theoretical analysis of the case of Venice city, we investigate different issues like the production of a monoculture industry linked to tourism; the “digital gentrification” of the urban centers linked to the increase in costs of living and housing prices, changing employment dynamics; and the “devitalization” of public space. On the basis of the preceding considerations, the final section attempts to give some different governmental and entrepreneurial responses to the consequences of the platform economy business model. It is becoming evident how important broad discussions on the real sustainable purpose of cities to be strived for by the city authorities are, how difficult the journey is that cities are going through at present with the platform economies as a driver, how critically some influences of platform economy business have to be highlighted, and what this demands of all stakeholders: authorities, citizens, and the public and private sectors.