How the Internet Celebrity Economy Influences the Gentrification Trend of Historic Conservation Districts: Taking Tanhualin District in China as an Example

Abstract

Urban renewal has driven historic conservation districts to experience a series of changes characterized by gentrification. In the 21st century, internet traffic can be fully monetized. The intervention of the internet has made the gentrification process more diversified. Using color and item detection, points of interests (POIs), and word cloud analysis, this study takes a typical historic conservation district as an example to explore how it changed spatially, economically, and socially during the gentrification process. The results show that the internet celebrity economy possesses both promoting and dissolving effects. The promoting effects include the following: (1) the internet celebrity economy breaks the elites’ monopoly on spatial aesthetic discourse; (2) emotional value has promoted the integration of different groups’ consumption; and (3) gentrification occurs locally so spatial exclusion is not significant. The dissolving effects include the following: (1) the low-cost and rapid renovation of space reduces spatial quality; and (2) the fast-moving consumer model may possibly lead to unsustainable development. This study proposes that the intervention of the internet celebrity economy can alleviate the isolation drawbacks of traditional gentrification and promote social equity, and the promoting effects outweigh the negative effects.

1. Introduction

In the 21st century, with the development of information technology, the internet is embedded in all socio-economic fields [1]. With a priority on maximizing online traffic, the interaction between urban renewal and internet has become increasingly close. Through social media dissemination, social media hot-spots, and Tik Tok videos, the popularity and commercial value of specific areas can be rapidly increased, producing a new concept called the internet celebrity economy. As an extension concept of the internet traffic economy, this study defines the internet celebrity economy as an economic model wherein viral online items are integrated into physical spaces to enhance the area’s online visibility, thereby attracting visitors for social media engagement (e.g., “check-ins”). The resultant increase in foot traffic stimulates local consumption [2]. This interaction has reshaped the urban spatial form and profoundly affected the characteristics and process of gentrification [3]. Gentrification is a common socio-economic process in urban renewal involving many complex social contradictions, social spatial restructuring, and complex games and interactions among capital, power, and different groups [4]. Since the concept of gentrification was proposed in the 1960s, with the continuous updating of urban renewal models, contemporary gentrification has broken through the traditional research scope. Gentrification and urban renewal often emerge concurrently. As an intervention, urban renewal aims to enhance the environmental quality of a given area and revitalize its socio-economic vitality. Gentrification, in contrast, represents a phenomenon of neighborhood transformation characterized primarily by rising property values and population displacement, though it is not an inevitable outcome of urban renewal. Notably, state-led urban renewal, imbued with welfare-oriented considerations, places greater emphasis on social equity in its implementation [5]. Its sources of capital, participants, and driving mechanisms are constantly diversifying and show distinct characteristics due to the continuous advancement of global urbanization. With the continuous enrichment of the connotation of gentrification, new forms such as new construction gentrification [6], school district gentrification [7], and commercial gentrification [8,9] have emerged. Gentrification can be conceptualized as the socio-spatial epitome of urban renewal. Due to developed countries and some developing countries moving from the incremental renewal step into stock renewal, enhancing place-making quality and stimulating economic revitalization under spatial constraints are a critical urban strategy. Then, the internet celebrity economy, as an emerging economic paradigm, is fundamentally transforming conventional approaches to urban renewal. Through social media and short-video platforms, online traffic transforms public attention into purchasing power that drives urban spatial restructuring and value appreciation, amplifying renewal effects while catalyzing innovative regeneration models. Revenue generated from influencer-driven foot traffic is termed the internet celebrity economy. Network traffic, as the result of capital competition, has also become a commodity containing new economic and spatial properties. And these new innovative commercial spaces under the Instagrammable aesthetic and values are called Instagram-worthy locations, which redefine urban economic landscapes and consumption paradigms. Through strategic digital curation by online influencers, photogenic locales like Seattle’s Pike Place Market, Santorini’s blue-domed villages, and Kyoto’s cherry blossom districts have transcended geographical constraints to emerge as global check-in spots. Internet traffic, as an important driver in the modern economic system, has transcended the function of simple information transmission and has become a new type of capital with both economic and spatial characteristics and the ability to discipline physical space [7,9,10]. Meanwhile, web-based public perception constitutes one of the primary evaluation metrics for contemporary urban renewal project success in the digital era [11].

2. Literature Review and Status

2.1. The Impact of the Internet Celebrity Economy on Physical Space

The impact of the internet celebrity economy on physical space is mainly reflected in two aspects: spatial aesthetics and changes in commercial formats. The emergence of Instagram-worthy locations represents a phenomenon deeply intertwined with digital media (social networks/platforms), which breaks the monopoly of elite aesthetics. Media’s influence on built environments has persisted since the 18th century production of picturesque landscapes, where artistic conventions dictated spatial perception and the environmental modification of English gardens into contemporary tourist destinations [12]. Then the advent of photography, mass media, and transportation directly catalyzed tourism and the institutionalization of Instagrammable locations, which is a new phenomenon. Photos and videos of transformed landscapes are then turned into consumable visual commodities [13]. In recent years, the rise of urban tourism has precipitated the gradual transformation of numerous urban spaces into staged photographic backdrops [14]. Urban regeneration projects have shown a pronounced preference for public space beautification, and the influencer aesthetics has become a standardized requirement in numerous initiatives [15,16]. The blending of nostalgic motifs, retro aesthetics, and contemporary trends to construct photogenic facades or scenes also corresponds with the modern aesthetic, which has proven to be a cost-effective approach within the internet celebrity economy. Indeed, projects with strong communicative appeal naturally generate online discourse. However, once an urban regeneration project establishes a favorable digital image through visually driven aesthetics, both authorities and the public tend to universally regard it as successful. The creation of Instagram-worthy spaces represents a distinct form of spatial production that has emerged alongside social media platforms [17]. At its core, this phenomenon demonstrates how digital media continues to reshape physical environments (Figure 1). Furthermore, when amplified by algorithmic selection mechanisms, the spatial transformation occurs on a greater scale, has faster turnover rates, and a more profound societal influence, consequently intensifying urban contradictions and making them more pronounced and acute [18,19].

In terms of the changes in business format, with the development of information technology, visual value has been projected more onto urban space, and network media and material space have been connected to explain new spatial production mechanisms. The human geographer Paul Adams revealed the mutually shaping relationship between media, space, and place, and pointed out that the communication process can directly affect power relationships, spatial cognition, and social identity [20]. The research of H. Lefebvre and M. Foucault proposed that media has connection functions, symbolic functions, and economic attributes, and that networks and other media are naturally bound to spatial construction and economic activities. The above economic theories provide the theoretical basis for the impact of internet celebrity economy on physical space [21,22]. The internet celebrity economy is a phenomenon in which internet celebrities establish trust relationships with consumers through social media platforms and generate economic value. The core lies in the ability to “monetize influence” and enhance the value of physical space [23,24,25]. Research on Quebec City’s tourism has confirmed that social media is an important driver of urban tourism. Tourists are more sensitive to the public space environment quality and regional background due to the influence of influencers’ recommendations [26]. Similar research on historic districts such as Kuan Zhai Alley in Chengdu and DaTang Everbright City has shown that video creation for traffic acquisition is a powerful type of visual economy. The content can attract tourists’ interest and bring economic benefits by stimulating people’s senses. Another study in Iceland has shown that 50% of tourists in 2017–2018 were influenced by online recommendations before traveling and followed influencers’ recommendations, and they agreed that checking in the same places and taking photos are interesting activities [27]. In terms of changes in commercial formats, research on Montmartre, Paris, and Shibuya, Tokyo, has shown that internet celebrity can attract a large number of tourists, with the most significant growth in local special catering and accommodation. The above studies show that internet-famous things directly affect the public’s attention and evaluation of the business. In addition to the recommendation effect, formats with traffic are more likely to attract tourists because they are visually attractive or represent a certain lifestyle. For example, characteristic coffee shops, bookstores, or markets that people see will be immediately associated with online recommendations. These shops are called Instagrammable businesses, and the core competitiveness of this type of business relies on the visual appeal and the ability to meet the social needs of different groups of people [28,29,30]. Therefore, they have a greater impact on spatial aesthetics. In China, since 2017, short videos related to urban tourism have been highly disseminated under the impetus of self-media platforms such as TikTok and Red Book, and the internet celebrity economy of related cities has exploded. However, unlike traditional tourism hot-spots with relatively stable audiences, the imitation craze formed by social media hot-spots only has short-term explosive popularity [31]. The intense, rapid, and significant changes in network media may lead to a pursuit of short-term fast-profit business models, which results in fluctuations in shop rents, rapid changes in the groups competing for rent, and homogenization of formats. These are new problems that need to be taken seriously. In summary, the internet celebrity economy has a certain power in aesthetics and can drive changes in urban images. It also promotes local economic development and changes in business formats and in people’s lifestyles.

2.2. The Association Between the Internet Celebrity Economy and Gentrification

The British communication sociologist Glass first described the phenomenon of gentrification in 1964. This phenomenon of urban renewal, characterized by improved spatial quality and displacement of low-income groups, has gradually been included in the research agenda of sociology, planning, architecture, and other fields. Elite-culture-driven gentrification, at certain societal stages, is readily steered by high-value commodities. For instance, British gentry culture emphasizes etiquette refinement and cultivated lifestyles, leveraging niche signifiers to transmit social status recognition. This phenomenon catalyzes price inflation and rent escalation, functioning as a mechanism through which elite strata isolate other social groups [32]. The drawbacks of gentrification lie in the increased cost of living, the displacement of original residents, and the exacerbation of social inequality due to the improvement of spatial value. However, the cyberculture brought by online traffic, unlike the elite culture that constructs symbolic boundaries through obscurity, has masses, and widely accepted characteristics are the key to driving monetization potential. The impact of internet social media on space shows the characteristics of mass and multi-dimensional penetration [33]. Cyberculture and elite culture have a certain natural contradiction, but they have a certain association in historic districts because of the urban renewal project. Previous research and real-life cases have revealed that virtual propaganda methods such as television can affect the public’s choice of ideology regarding class, consumption, and gender, which proves that social media has a certain impact on the gentrification process [34]. However, these studies on the internet celebrity economy and Instagram-worthy locations have mostly focused on the visual discipline of space, discussing issues such as aesthetic vulgarity, loss of authenticity, and aesthetic saturation effect, but neglecting the profit-seeking essence behind the physical space change [35,36]. Things that can be disseminated through the internet and have a certain social influence generally have topicality and timeliness. The internet celebrity economy attaches emotional elements such as visual value and emotional value to commodities, breaking the necessary connection between value and price. The public follows the influencers’ recommended things on social media platforms and engages in follow-up consumption. These things are popular, offer talking points, and cater to the social needs of a group of elites. The widespread adoption of digitalization and internet connectivity has reduced the information gap between different classes of people. The internet celebrity economy has broken through the material conditions required for the original capital accumulation, allowing popular culture to infiltrate the elite class. The relatively low cost gives different classes of people the opportunity to share benefits. However, in recent years, the internet celebrity economy, in pursuit of higher profits, has also begun to focus on the needs of the elite circle and has a tendency to serve groups with greater economic power [37]. Under the influence of value and culture, the phenomenon of economic rise guided by the internet celebrity economy overlaps with some characteristics of gentrification in spatial and temporal dimensions.

Focusing on historic districts, they have experienced gentrification due to urban renewal and transformation and also need to break through the original functions and explore new economic values [38,39]. For a long time, the historic district has been a relatively closed community with a history and foundation of gentrification [40]. However, with the redevelopment of urban renewal, the internet celebrity economy is projected into physical space, and the originally closed space becomes open. This new type of economy, which does not abandon low-social-class culture, has jointly had a huge impact on the visual content and social discourse system of historic districts [41,42]. On the one hand, the characteristics of gentrification such as rising rents, changes in business formats, and population displacement have changed because of the entry of the internet celebrity economy. On the other hand, as a projection of virtual world values in real space, the disembedding of operators and consumers in real spacetime by the internet celebrity economy leads to the lack of stability of check-in points based on the traditional commercial foundation of the real economy. Therefore, the internet celebrity economy may have complex effects of dissolution and promotion on the re-gentrification process of historic districts, and the relationship needs to be studied through empirical cases.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Study Area

Wuhan exhibits parallels with cities like Tokyo and Seoul in terms of economic scale and population density, with a population density of 1607 people per square kilometer in 2024, positioning it as a densely populated and growing urban center. Culturally, Wuhan shares similarities with Shanghai, as both cities were opened as treaty ports in the late Qing Dynasty and evolved into vital domestic and international trade hubs. This commercial prosperity significantly influenced their architectural development and urban morphology. Tanhualin is a typical historic conservation district, which is defined by a location that has historical value, has been appropriately preserved, and shall not be destroyed, distilling buildings and districts of historical value into a single category [43]. The district is located in Wuchang, Wuhan City, Hubei Province (Figure 2); it was built in the 4th year of the Ming Hongwu era in 1371 and has a history of 646 years. It is famous for its rich modern history and the integration of Chinese and Western cultures. During the Hankou Treaty Port era, missionaries from various countries entered this place to preach and establish schools and clinics, building a large number of religious buildings. The arrival of the New Democratic Revolution attracted a group of revolutionary and artistic people with advanced ideas and culture to build residences here, leaving many sites of revolutionary uprisings [44]. For nearly a century, Tanhualin has been a place for cultural and ideological enlightenment and the collision and gathering of cultural elites. Its unique geographical location and cultural connotation have jointly laid the foundation for the gentrification of the Tanhualin community.

Tanhualin starts from Zhongshan Road in the east and ends at Desheng Bridge in the west, with a total length of about 1.2 km. It includes areas such as Gejiaying, Deshengqiao, covering a total area of about 104 hectares. The community renovation lasted about 20 years and was carried out in four phases. Different spatial distribution of points of interest (POIs) shows that different phases had different popular places (Figure 3). The overall architecture and spatial layout have not changed significantly. From 2005 to 2011, the first and second phases of the Tanhualin renovation project were launched, which renovated or relocated 52 relics and 142 households or enterprises over an area of 107.7 hectares. The community’s living environment was basically completed. In 2019, the first phase of the Tanhualin Cultural Town project and the Tanhualin Panjoy Shopping Center were completed. With the continuous improvement of community construction, some merchants from Gejiaying Community moved to Tanhualin community. With the rise of self-media and short videos, the internet celebrity economy has entered the community and promoted the transformation of space and formats. The stage after 2019 is a key node in the integrated development of traditional cultural districts and commercial districts. In 2021, the second phase of the Tanhualin Cultural Town was opened, and the completion of the Panjoy Shopping Center and the main area of Tanhualin accelerated the entire historic district’s commercialization process [45]. By 2023, the number of shops in Tanhualin had reached 283, and there is a situation where commercial areas and original ecological residential areas coexist.

3.2. Research Methods

Due to the limitations of data in historic districts (e.g., rental prices and leasing models, and neighborhood scale population), this study uses a survey method to obtain the leasing information and population change conditions. The combination of qualitative and quantitative methods is used to collect and analyze the dissolution and promotion effects of gentrification from three aspects: spatial representation, economic value, and social effects (Figure 4).

Spatial Representation: This analysis is divided into two parts: color and item detection. Color serves as the primary perceptual element in spatial cognition, and leveraging large-scale visual data has emerged as an effective methodology for investigating spatial characteristics. This approach holds particular significance for analyzing the chromatic distribution of internet-famous cities and examining how viral digital elements reshape spatial identities. Firstly, in urban images dominated by visual perception, color plays an important role, and the content of landscape photos often represents the most significant characteristics of the area [46]. Therefore, to explore the spatial representation of the re-gentrification of Tanhualin, we obtained 1035 photos from Sina Blog and Red Book platforms from 2013 to 2023 for color analysis and intention extraction. Photos from Sina blog and Red Book platforms and the public review data from Dianping were crawled from the webpages directly. They are free, but the crawling quantity is limited each day. The algorithm of color image quantization was used to obtain multiple photo theme colors. First, all block colors in each photo were sorted by red, green, blue (RGB) array, and the sorted RGB array was divided into two and recursively split until the preset sub-array was reached. To highlight color features, the display target was set to colors with a proportion greater than 1%. After several attempts, the preset sub-array was at least 30. Finally, the RGB array average value was calculated to synthesize a new value as the theme color of the array. Secondly, the main items detection analysis can represent the Instagrammable style decorations’ influence on space aesthetic [47,48]. Since the photos span a long period, to reduce the impact of weather and other factors on the recognition results, the YOLO V5 (YOLO means You Only Look Once) combined with the Unbiased Mean Teacher algorithm was used to identify six items in the photos: buildings, plants, flowers, shops, cartoons, and neon lights. YOLO V5 was used as the basic detection model, and the teacher and student models were initialized separately [49]. The student model was trained to have basic detection capabilities, and the teacher model was trained to generate labels. After training, the student model was used to detect new target domain data, identify objects, and conduct statistics. Japanese scholars have made significant contributions to the study of urban color harmony through the development of the Practical Color Coordinate System (PCCS), which systematically classifies colors based on lightness and saturation while ascribing distinct color personalities to different tonal values. Building upon this framework, this study employs PCCS principles to characterize urban spaces along two key dimensions: the saturation level determines whether a space is perceived as active (high saturation) or peaceful (low saturation), while chromatic compatibility with the architectural context defines spaces as modern (high contrast with surroundings) or traditional (harmonious with original colors) [50].

Economic Effects: Changes in business formats and rents are the most important economic characteristics of gentrification [51]. This paper collected POI point data from Open Street Map (OSM) in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2020, and 2023 and cleaned up seven common facility types, including catering, companies and enterprises, shopping and entertainment, hotel accommodation, science and culture, life services, and medical and health care. The economic impact of influencer gentrification necessitates a comparative analysis of rentals in both spatial and temporal dimensions. Since people from outside the area negotiate rentals with original residents privately in the Tanhualin District, the public data is lacking. Researchers conducted interviews with a total of 14 shops in 2021 and 2024. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 randomly selected stores across different business types. Each interview lasted 15–30 min, depending on the respondents’ availability, and covered core questions regarding leasing models, rental price fluctuations, and target customer demographics. Additional voluntary discussions included business performance metrics, operational tenure, and perceptions of rental changes. These supplementary data were selectively incorporated into the analysis based on informant consent and relevance. The interview content included leasing models, rent changes, target groups, and business conditions. Subsequently, the economic changes in the Tanhualin historic district under the influence of the internet celebrity economy were summarized according to shop types.

Social Effects: Through the analysis of social media comments, researchers can accurately capture public attitudes toward specific subjects or spaces. For instance, Andrea et al. investigated the correlation between Twitter users’ sentiment trends and daily tweet volume peaks, identifying vaccination-related events that potentially triggered public discourse. Similarly, Chandrasekaran et al. [52,53] employed machine learning, deep learning techniques, and Text Blob-based sentiment analysis to examine the evolving public sentiment in COVID-19-related Twitter posts. Particularly regarding internet phenomena, public review data can rapidly reveal dissatisfaction and immediate perceptions toward a given area, providing real-time insights into collective spatial experiences. This approach demonstrates how computational analysis of user-generated content serves as an effective tool for understanding the dynamic relationship between digital discourse and physical environments. Public feedback contains information about their consumption choices and motivations [54], which combined with POI business data, can be used to analyze the impact of changes in formats and economy on public life driven by the internet celebrity economy. Public textual description information about the district comes from 6669 good, medium, and poor review data from Dianping from 2013 to 2023, which were also crawled from the webpages directly. The data was imported into the Fine BI platform’s word cloud component to statistically count the frequently occurring words in the sentences and visualize them in the form of a word cloud.

4. Results

4.1. Spatial Color and Decorative Changes

Building renovation, multiple colors, lighting, and paving are the main manifestations of the improvement of spatial quality in the gentrification process of Tanhualin, which is reflected in the color distribution of the historic images of Tanhualin (Figure 5). In the past decade, gray and brown have always been the basic colors of the buildings in Tanhualin, accounting for more than 50% of the composition, and are the most important components of the community’s landscape characteristics. The gray-brown tone has laid the foundation for the traditional elite-culture-dominated, quiet community style of Tanhualin. After the building facades were renovated, the overall tone shifted from the old yellow to a more modern cold gray. The proportion of the buildings’ dominant colors, gray-brown, in the photos has been continuously decreasing, from more than 70% in 2013 to about 53% in 2023. Until 2019, the entry of the internet celebrity economy changed the traditional gentrification pursuit of a literary and quiet transformation style. Bright Instagrammable colors increase a sense of modernity and vitality in the community, while also creating the issue of disharmony in color coordination and style presentation. In 2021, the second phase of construction made some adjustments to the style of Tanhualin, removing some decorations that did not fit the environment. The night scene decoration on the hill of Tanhualin added yellow light elements, so the photos showed a decrease in color richness and a return to tradition in the overall style. In 2023, Tanhualin improved in both lighting and color richness, with lower color saturation and a transition from previous disorder to coordinated unity; it can be seen that the construction process balanced the contradiction between tradition and modernity, striving to achieve a unified and diverse style.

In addition to color, another impact of the internet celebrity economy on spatial influence is reflected in the Instagrammable tendency of landscape decorative elements. The frequency of business facilities in the photos continued to increase (Figure 6), from 79 times to 119 times in 10 years. On the one hand, the increase in the number of shops indicates the improvement of the degree of commercialization of the community. On the other hand, interesting shops have enhanced their attractiveness to the public. The entrances of shops have been decorated as check-in spots to attract passenger flow in a new way, which to a certain extent proves that the internet celebrity economy has attracted most of the public’s attention. In addition, the increase in flower elements is also significant, among which cherry blossoms, as a representative element of Wuhan, have a total frequency of 241 times in historic photos, accounting for more than 40% of all flower elements. The large-scale use and promotion of cherry blossom elements have become the beginning of the combination of Wuhan’s local characteristics and the internet celebrity economy. The frequency of cartoon images increased from 13 times to 134 times in 10 years. Cartoon murals and a batch of characteristic IP dolls combining Wuhan’s local culture, such as “Mr. Zebra” and “Tantan Baby,” were placed on the streets, becoming the second most frequently appearing elements in the photos. The increase in neon lights represents that the urban night scene has more diverse meanings and creative space, improving the quality of the community’s night-time space. It extends the value of the visual economy in the temporal dimension and also addresses the public’s new preferences for urban experiences. The increase in flowers, cartoons, and neon lights proves the aesthetic impact of the internet celebrity economy on historic and cultural districts.

4.2. Business Format Changes and Rent Fluctuations

The early commercial facilities in Tanhualin indicate that life services, clinics, and other life-related POIs accounted for a larger proportion, followed by catering and shopping. Tanhualin was originally famous for its coffee street; English afternoon tea and other shops catering to the consumption habits of the middle class dominated before the transformation. It was not until 2018 that urban tourism became popular on short-video platforms such as TikTok. Tanhualin, with its specific cultural characteristics, attracted a batch of influencers to check in, and the phenomenon of spatial Instagrammability began to appear. The most significant change is that life service facilities have been replaced by experiential and service businesses. Among them, bubble tea and coffee shops, cat cafes, handicrafts, pottery, and other entertainment services exploded in 2018. Cafes and snack shops accounted for nearly 40%, and experiential shopping and entertainment such as handicrafts and pottery accounted for about 30% (Figure 7).

The internet celebrity economy has improved the commercial vitality of the community, leading to the emergence of rent gap profits. Under the “bid-rent” allocation principle of spatial resources, whether a space has visual value to attract people to check in and harvest more traffic has become a core determinant of spatial differentiation. The rent of bubble tea shops and cafés has increased the most significantly, with an increase of about 10% to 30% (

Table 1. Rent and ownership of interviewed shops in Tanhualin.

Business Type	Location	Opening Time	Rent Changes (in Month)
Bubble Tea Shop	Tanhualin Road Side	2021	230 Ұ/m2–300 Ұ/m2
Bubble Tea Shop	Tanhualin Road Side	2022	280 Ұ/m2–350 Ұ/m2
Bubble Tea Shop	Fanyuehui Plaza	2022	200 Ұ/m2–240/m2
Cafe	Tanhualin Road Side	2020	200 Ұ/m2–220/m2
Convenience Shop	District Center	2018	100 Ұ/m2–250/m2
Hanfu Experience Store	Tanhualin Road Side	2019	129 Ұ/m2–135 Ұ/m2
Cate cafe	District Center	2021	Self-owned
Cate cafe	Tanhualin Road Side	2022	220 Ұ/m2–230 Ұ/m2
Restaurant	Alleys	2019	Self-owned
Cultural and Creative Store	District Center	2021	210 Ұ/m2–230 Ұ/m2
Cultural and Creative Store	Tanhualin Road Side	2021	Government owned
Pottery	Alleys	2018	35 Ұ/m2–45 Ұ/m2
Pottery	Alleys	2021	55 Ұ/m2–60 Ұ/m2
handicraft shops	Alleys	2020	Self-owned

). The photogenic environment and products with relatively low unit price provide a sense of ceremony for the middle class. As an essential element of urban tourism, they have higher internet traffic and economic value. The low unit price further expands the value of the internet celebrity economy. However, beverage shops have to face high substitutability and intense homogenized competition, while the highly variable quality of internet-famous fast-moving consumer goods further contributes to frequent tenant turnover, which are all important reasons for frequent shop changes. The rent increase of cat cafes, restaurants, pottery, handicraft shops, and other shops with experiential services is relatively slow, about 5% to 10%. Most of them are operated by original residents; as owner-occupiers or through established landlord relationships, they often secure housing leases at below-market rates. Such shops have lower operating costs, relying on the shop owner’s own experiences and technology. Compared with local residents’ operation, externally originated chain convenience stores have to face disproportionately higher rental fees. Having a relatively fixed customer group makes for a relatively stable performance of operations. The internet celebrity economy creates win–win outcomes by increasing revenue for local residents while reducing their own operational costs.

4.3. Tourist and Native Resident Displacement

Word clouds can often reflect the attitudes of different groups towards the community and indirectly reflect the main groups the place serves. According to the evaluation word clouds, from 2013 to 2018 (Figure 8a), before the influence of the internet celebrity economy on Tanhualin, the keywords were “literary,” “antique,” “coffee,” “quiet,” etc. This feature shows that the target audience is mainly “literati and artists,” and the commercial characteristics are not significant. The cultural atmosphere is the main source of attraction. The community as a whole retains its original residential characteristics, and shops are mainly serving residents. The negative reviews are mainly concentrated in the inconvenience of life and the narrow, dilapidated space during the transformation process. After 2018 (Figure 8b), the quiet, slow street mode has changed, and “city walk,” “influencer,” “photography,” “aura,” and other keywords have become the main descriptions. With the changes in online hot-spots, there is a fluidity in consumer preferences. The consumer group of Tanhualin not only includes literati and artists but also urban tourists and experiencers. They are sensitive to prices, and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) and experiential services can meet their needs. Higher-class people with stable incomes are concerned with the value of visual effects and social attributes. The internet-famous businesses can offer them ideal photogenic settings that become their common subject for experiencing different lives. At different times, different groups have a certain consensus on the creativity, romance, relaxation, artistic sense, and coffee culture of Tanhualin. Although different consumer groups have significant differences in consumption patterns, they can find the value they need in the Tanhualin historic district.

Although the improvement of community quality and the rise in rent are significant, the changes in the target group have not led to a large-scale migration of local residents. Based on the interview results, it was found that more than 30% of the shops are operated by owners using their own housing, and about 19% of the nearby residents are tenants; that is, nearly 50% of the shops are still controlled by the local residents (Figure 9). Foreign operators account for 41%, and the remaining 3% are government-owned, mainly used for service-oriented tourist centers. Since the local residents rarely transfer their houses, foreign operators are mostly in lease relationships. The local residents still have the dominant right to set rent and prices for houses. By renting houses to obtain income or following the commercialization process of the community to live and make a living in the community, the local residents have basically maintained their pre-transformation lifestyle while improving their living standards. There has been no large-scale class displacement phenomenon in the community.

4.4. Comparison of Traditional Gentrification and Internet Celebrity Economy Gentrification Characteristics

Based on the synthesis of previous studies, gentrification offers advantages in enhancing spatial quality, spatial productivity, and value appreciation, while its drawbacks are equally evident, primarily manifested in social inequity and population displacement. Therefore, this study examines the distinctive characteristics of the internet celebrity economy gentrification to systematically analyze its divergence from conventional gentrification patterns. Compared with the manifestations of traditional gentrification, the internet-celebrity-economy-guided gentrification phenomenon of historic districts typically involves three aspects: spatial reconstruction, business format upgrading and rent increase, and group changes (

Table 2. Comparison of traditional gentrification and internet celebrity economy gentrification characteristics.

	Business Driven by Internet Celebrity Economy	Business Driven by Gentrification
Spatial Reconstruction	Keep the original style + Instagrammable decorations	Normally, completely rebuild
Lease form	Local residents’ owner-occupied housing rentals	Developer-Led Build-to-Rent
Lease fee	Moderate overall growth, with significant surges among high-revenue shops	Whole area significant surges
Business Format	More service and experiential shops	High-end brand, chain stores, boutiques
Operators	Local Residents + Some operators from outside	Developer or chain stores
Consumers	Tourists, young people and all different groups	Elite class
Development Entity	Government, local residents, some operators from outside	Government or other developers

). (1) It is a process where promotion and dissolution coexist. In contrast to new-build gentrification that typically involves comprehensive redevelopment, the Tanhualin community renovation project did not choose a comprehensive new construction model. It follows the protection-first principle, with renovations on the basis of retaining the original spatial form and building appearance. Influenced by Instagrammable aesthetics, decorative landscape elements have increased the richness and atmosphere of the space. However, there are often rough and abrupt problems in the early stage of transformation. The decorative landscape elements need time to integrate into the overall environment of historic districts. (2) In terms of business format changes, Tanhualin has retained its original coffee culture and increased service and experiential shops. Emotional value has partially replaced the value of objects themselves. These formats have attracted different consumer groups and are not limited to high consumption and a certain specific group. In this case study, the lease form is mainly individual self-employment, with few foreign-chain commercial shops, and no monopoly situation has been formed. Consequently, the neighborhood experienced moderate rent appreciation overall, with the most pronounced increases observed among high-revenue chain bubble tea shops and aesthetically distinctive coffee establishments. (3) In addition, the Tanhualin community is being reconstructed and developed by the local government, retaining the original residents’ housing ownership, so that there is no large-scale population displacement problem. The internet-celebrity-economy-guided environmental transformation and format changes have promoted the diversification of consumer groups. The resultant consumer group diversification suggests that internet-celebrity-driven transformations may generate more inclusive outcomes than conventional models, though longitudinal studies are needed to verify this provisional conclusion.

5. Discussion

5.1. The Transfer of Aesthetic Discourse Power

By increasing Instagrammable adornments, historic districts formed under the influence of the internet celebrity economy have broken the monopoly of the middle class in aesthetic discourse power. The Tanhualin renovation project has determined that the core of the transformation involves continuing and protecting the original lifestyle of the location. Gentrification seeks to fully display the cultural style and spatial characteristics of the community, create high-quality space, and attract an elite group of people. Implanting consumerism into the spatial transformation of historic and cultural districts and stimulating the consumption desires of the elite class to enhance the commercial value of the districts are common means of transforming historic districts. However, through the analysis of color and element changes, after the internet celebrity economy began developing in 2018, the Tanhualin community showed trends in spatial color and an increase in popular online elements. This phenomenon indicates that the spatial gentrification process of historic and cultural districts has been influenced by Instagrammable aesthetics. Based on the original elite culture, Tanhualin districts introduced popular culture to increase public attention and passenger flow. Popular elements on Weibo and Instagram have influenced local design, and imitating popular things in Western countries has become the beginning of transformation. For example, British red telephone booths, colorful mural graffiti, and large flower walls have become common decorative landscape elements in the community. Subsequently, based on Wuhan’s cherry blossom culture, unique Western architecture, traditional Chinese medicine culture, and the new democratic revolution culture, Tanhualin designed a batch of unique influential properties (IPs) and completed the transformation from imitation to innovation in space.

The spatial reconstruction of gentrification and the spatial optimization guided by the internet celebrity economy have formed a complementary relationship, which is also a manifestation of the transfer of cultural power in the gentrification process. The emergence of the COVID-19 epidemic in 2019 has further strengthened people’s dependence on online information. Searching online to find a less crowded place before consumption and travel has become a common habit [55]. Therefore, the internet celebrity economy can guide the aesthetic preferences of the public and improve spatial quality accordingly. The government-led urban renewal has laid a common spatial foundation for the gentrification and internet economy value transformation of historic districts. When traditional cultural districts attain the spatial qualities desired by the middle class, they must also provide tangible markers that reflect their distinctive lifestyles. Internet-famous things synthesize cross-class life worlds of different groups of people and meet the social demands of different classes to emulate upper-class elite lifestyles. At the same time, the strong visual stimulation of internet-famous things can often capture the public’s attention in a short time, using people’s social needs to transform “emotions” and “atmosphere” into commercial value. Instagrammable transformation is also a low-cost and less destructive transformation model, which buffers the contradiction between the preservation of historic districts and the “creative destruction” of exploring commercial value.

However, this transformation has also become a fast-food model for many historic districts’ transformation projects. In form, it has become a common phenomenon that a large number of visual spectacles are manufactured, or bright colors and materials are used. The success or failure of the transformation is determined by whether it is a photogenic place, leading all groups involved in the transformation to actively or passively cater to the logic of media justice. This approach often neglects the multi-dimensional nature of spatial quality enhancement, which encompasses rational facility layout, accessibility, and alignment with people’s productive and living needs, etc. The popular and frequently checked-in areas lead to more similar videos online, since the internet celebrity economy monetization needs to be time-efficient. The translocation, imitation, and transformation of popular things in different regions may also reduce spatial quality and lead to the problem of rough and shabby landscapes that destroy the original style. The audience and merchants jointly cater to the trend, resulting in a large number of similar internet popular contents being copied in tourism commercial districts, and homogenization competition may lead to the decline in the quality of spatial gentrification, aesthetic monotony, and other problems in historic districts with dense Instagrammable check-in points.

5.2. The Protection of the Interests of Local Residents

The government has curtailed the rise in rent by retaining the ownership of the local residents. Furthermore, the internet celebrity economy has increased the ways for the residents to obtain benefits, and the local residents can achieve gentrification in this community. Sharon Zukin argues in Naked City that authenticity serves as a versatile mechanism for establishing territorial legitimacy [56,57]. This conceptual construct possesses dual operational logics. On one hand, it can be strategically commodified to appeal to middle-class consumer sensibilities. On the other hand, it functions as an instrumental resource for longstanding residents to validate their spatial claims in urban environments. Since the original community was too crowded and lacked space for development, internal competition was fierce; lack of business led to no group truly benefiting. After consultation with the locals, the government reduced the population density of the community by 20%. The government, through the compensation, ensured the using rights or ownership of the original residents and used public negotiation methods to reduce conflict. Most of the residents moving out were younger generations who had inherited parental properties but were no longer economically tied to the neighborhood due to workplace locations. By adopting the method of in situ resettlement, the possibility of capital entering and harvesting rent differentials was avoided. This compensation-based approach created a quasi-voluntary departure mechanism, wherein structural factors (e.g., intergenerational property transfer and employment geography) indirectly encouraged residential turnover without direct coercive measures. Due to the government’s transformation process, the interests of the original residents were protected, and most of them chose to return to the community after the transformation. The research results also show that, unlike the overall rise in rent in gentrification, individual landlords control the rise and fall of rent according to the operating conditions. The trend of making a profit before raising prices also ensures that the rent fluctuates within a reasonable range. The low-cost and fast-moving characteristics of internet-popular things need the support of low rent in the early stage. The delay in the emergence of “rent differentials” provides opportunities for low-cost operations of the internet-celebrity-economy-led formats. Original residents can obtain future appreciation benefits through both business operation and rent collection. After traditional historic districts have their own traffic on the internet, the rise in rent gives the original residents the opportunity to increase their income and they do not become “victims of rent deprivation.” Since the source of capital can directly affect the business’s implementing entities, organizational types, target consumer groups, and other elements, the intervention of the internet celebrity economy has changed the mode in which large capital investments monopolize economic benefits [31]. The gentrification influenced by the internet celebrity economy has changed the beneficiary groups. It is manifested in two major ways: first, the original residents can quickly access the aesthetic and demands of the elite class through the network. The disappearance of information gap and low transformation costs enable them to become the main operators and transformers directly. Second, operators and local landlords form an internal economic cycle in the community, jointly creating a batch of spaces with “check-in” value. The distinctive nature of the internet celebrity economy enables these processes to unfold without reliance on large-scale capital intervention. Transforming historic and cultural elements into community characteristics with commercial value, the in situ gentrification of the local residents effectively alleviates the problem of deportation and replacement in traditional gentrification.

5.3. Harmonious Coexistence of Diverse Gentrification Subjects

The internet celebrity economy has enriched the business formats of the community and alleviated the problems of class differentiation, inequality, and isolation. The viability of internet-celebrity-economy-driven commercial models fundamentally rests upon two structural advantages: low-barrier information accessibility and capital-efficient fast-moving consumer goods. In the historic districts influenced by the internet celebrity economy, it is common to see a standardized commercial package comprising chain cafes, bubble tea shops, artisanal experience workshops, and vintage retail establishments. Quickly visualized original stories and community sentiments that can evoke strong feelings become “check-in” elements. The quantity advantage and cultural identity brought by traffic leads to the development of fragmented small and micro businesses. According to the word cloud analysis results, the pursuit of “refinement,” “quality,” and “novelty” in life is a common human demand. Emotional value and talking points are the main reasons why different groups are willing to pay. Under the guidance of the visual economy, contemporary business configurations have transcended conventional retail paradigms, evolving into integrated complexes that synergize cultural entertainment, leisure services, artisanal production, and culinary experience programming. The recreational functions sometimes outperform traditional retail in spatial allocation and revenue contribution. New consumer groups choose to consume in shops that are more visually “check-in”-oriented in order to show their lifestyle and promote group identity. Traditional gentrification claims that capital and ownership play a core role in the gentrification process, pointing out that “it is capital, not people” that dominates the gentrification process. The middle-class group is only a consumer and participant. Developers, real estate agents, and financial institutions are the main drivers. However, the internet celebrity economy brought by self-media emphasizes the consumption preferences of consumers. Consumers are no longer passive recipients of the business models provided by developers. The internet celebrity economy provides more spontaneity and active choice for commercialization. Consumer groups are not only limited to the middle class or high-consuming groups; the young generation pursuing cost-effectiveness also ensures the survival of different formats.

Combined with the analysis results of business format and rent changes, the internet traffic also has a passive influence in that the excess of traditional retail formats, catering formats, and daily-life businesses are gradually becoming apparent. Instagrammable-style shops are based on spatial construction of cultural practice and have the ability to distinguish special marks. The isolation process is similar to gentrification but with different groups of people, which also can produce the basis for monopolistic rent. Digital society provides the possibility for the internet celebrity economy to control rent changes. The increase in community consumption power drives the synchronous expansion of commercial operating costs and consumer markets. In the competition for rent, internet-famous shops have more power to drive out and replace other businesses. However, the core of the profitability of internet celebrity economy lies in attracting passenger flow and attracting fragmented consumption through a fast-moving economic route. However, the popularity of internet-famous things often has the characteristics of serendipity, timeliness, and unsustainability, and repeated things and business models are viewed by the public. “Historic elements + Instagrammable formats + Visual surface + Media justice” has become a standardized template and rational process for commercial districts to make profits quickly. Under the joint action of declining popularity and increasing businesses costs, the businesses under this model quickly withdraw from the market. The large proportion of consumption of fast-moving consumer goods or experiential consumption with high gross profit margins, which find it difficult to attract consumers for a long time, results in incomplete gentrification.

5.4. Study Value and Limitations

This study, based on a Chinese case, employs a multi-method approach integrating street view imagery, online reviews, and in-depth interviews to enhance the methodological diversity of neighborhood-scale research. Platforms such as Google Maps provide temporally rich street view data, while websites like Yelp offer valuable user-generated evaluation data, methods particularly instructive for examining equity issues in the development of viral tourism destinations and commercial districts. A pertinent case in point is Kings Cross Coal Drops Yard, a successful urban regeneration project, where evolving community values under modern digital influence warrant critical investigation. However, the research acknowledges certain limitations. First, because the internet celebrity economy is an extension concept of the internet traffic economy, it refers in this study to an economic model wherein the online items are integrated into physical spaces to enhance the area’s online visibility, thereby attracting visitors for social media engagement (e.g., “check-ins”). The resultant increase in foot traffic stimulates local consumption. The internet celebrity economy cannot be completely separated from traditional business or measured independently in quantitative terms. Although its impacts are visibly manifested through spatial and media representations, the internet celebrity economy measurement could be further investigated in the future. Second, the incomplete rental data within the study area posed a challenge, necessitating reliance on researchers’ empirical knowledge to infer rental fluctuation patterns. Furthermore, the varying manifestations and degrees of gentrification across national contexts and development models, as well as the differential roles played by internet-famous elements, call for more cross-regional comparative studies to advance nuanced theoretical discussions.

6. Conclusions

This study comprehensively analyzes the spatial, economic, and social changes in the Tanhualin district driven by the internet celebrity economy. It reveals the characteristics and mechanisms of the influence of internet celebrity on the gentrification of traditional historic conservation districts. In terms of spatial representation, the internet celebrity economy attracts public attention through a relatively low-cost transformation model and obtains the cultural power of spatial aesthetics. It has altered the elite’s monopoly on landscape transformation in traditional gentrification. The overall rent of the community shows an upward trend, and internet-celebrity-guided business formats have activated the development of fragmented small and micro businesses. The government’s investment, replacement, and resettlement are the fundamental reasons why the residents have not been driven out under the phenomenon of gentrification. The rent difference and business operation opportunities formed by the internet celebrity economy are the driving force for the original residents to achieve gentrification without leaving the community. The power from the government and internet celebrity economy is indispensable. The residents and consumers promote the spatial reconstruction, weakening the value of capital on the supply side. Compared with traditional gentrification, the transformation of historic districts driven by the internet celebrity economy has certain optimization characteristics. On the one hand, it has the advantages of gentrification in improving spatial quality and value, but there is no large-scale population replacement and exclusion of vulnerable locals. The residents can enjoy the results of spatial transformation and subsequent economic benefits. The consumer group has not shown a problem of class solidification; on the contrary, it is richer than before. On the other hand, the gentrification process is influenced by internet traffic, which has some disadvantages. First, the Instagrammable aesthetic may lead to the loss of the district’s characteristics. Low-cost and shoddy decorative landscape elements reduce spatial quality, and repeated dissemination on the network may lead to public aesthetic fatigue. The homogenization of business formats leads to the potential danger of unsustainable development. Under the effect of competition for rent, the rise in rent of internet celebrity formats squeeze the survival space of traditional daily-life services. With the practice and innovation of the internet celebrity economy in different regions of China, urban renewal is also integrating with high-value objects in the network. Various places are constantly creating new internet-famous landscapes based on their own cultural background for other regions to imitate, and the two alternately promote each other. Based on the results, this study proposes that the internet celebrity economy is a rapid-return economic model, which has both promotion and dissolution effects on the gentrification process of historic districts. Overall, the internet economy joint space shows the characteristic of bottom–up development: the promoting effect is greater than the dissolving effect. The primary drawbacks of gentrification, namely population displacement and segregation, have been effectively mitigated, offering significant benefits for promoting social justice. This development path that meets the digital information age still requires further exploration with more cases and should be extended to more regions in future research.