Digital platform-led industrial restructuring and cross-border digital divides in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, China

The development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area (GBA) has attracted tremendous attention since the development plan of which as a national strategy was promulgated by the State Council as a national strategy in early 2019. A growing body of literature has devoted its discussions to exploring the profound transformation driven by digital platforms and subsequent effects on sustainable social and economic development, and integration in the GBA in the digital age. Drawing upon the conceptual synergies of Global Production Networks (GPN) and platform ecosystem literatures, I the speaker will firstly share my her recent research on the rise of market power of Tencent, one of China’s indigenous platforms in the digital transformation of China’s mobile gaming industry and beyond. I The speaker will then subsequently extend the literature of digital divides to examine the inter-city digital disparity in terms of using mobile applications (apps) among older adults amid COVID-19 pandemic and implications for cross-border retirement and living in the GBA in the digital age. The speaker will conclude by highlighting research challenges and agenda for future research on urban and regional transformation and resilience in the digital age of platform economy.