Meet the new frontiersman

Photos provided to China Daily

In his role as a manager and operator of arenas, as well as an agent and promoter, the New York City native is introducing both world-class facilities and A-listers who probably would have bypassed China five or 10 years ago to second- and third-tier cities that remain off the global radar.

"We had no idea what to expect," he says of Bieber's concert in China's far-flung north, one of three the singer performed in China.

"But Dalian was one of the best shows on the tour, an unbelievable show. People came in from everywhere. Justin was the first Western artist to ever play in Dongbei," he says, referring to the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. They have a catchment area of about 60 million people.

"People (outside China) have probably never heard of a lot of the cities we work in, like Dalian or Fuzhou or Guangzhou, but they will," he says.

In the process, AEG has been hijacking social media to sell out concerts for the likes of Metallica in the time it takes to watch Eminem's recent Rap God music video on YouTube. Online tickets for Bieber's first gig in Shanghai sold out in six minutes.

"We didn't do one hard ad for the Metallica shows (in August)," says Cappo. Instead, AEG tapped China's younger demographic via micro blogs, messaging platforms such as We Chat, sites such as GuitarChina and Web-based opinion leaders.

Cappo started his Asian journey 20 years ago in Taiwan province, where he graduated from National Taiwan University's prestigious business school. He launched several start-ups, first a translation business and then an event management company organizing sponsorship for top-tier tennis and golf events.