Original · Unique Research · 2026-01-28
Historical edition: This complete January 28, 2026 interview and all eleven Q&A preserve Heiyu’s product vision, reported relationships and historical examples. The Michael Jackson concert is described as a virtual project, not a literal revival; the source does not establish its licensing, estate authorization, release status or availability. The headline’s 80 million fans and the opening illustrative calculation of 90 million followers minus 2 million attendees, leaving 88 million, are different source figures and are retained without reconciliation. The Travis Scott and Lil Nas X audience figures and Q8’s “only PC”/“only phones” formulations are the interview’s claims, not verified platform-exclusive availability or deduplicated audience measurements; users and attendances remain distinct units. The statements attributed to About Face reflect Heiyu’s account of the book, not an independently checked quotation. MiniMax partnership, prior event participation and future adoption predictions remain source-attributed statements. Dayou Space is a descriptive rendering of 大有空间, not a verified official English brand name.
Only People, No Screens
Betting on the Next Decade: While Everyone Else Competes on Foundation Models & AI Applications, He Is Building a "New World"
Have you ever done the math? A top celebrity can hold hundreds of tour dates and reach at most 2 million live audience members, but may have 90 million online followers. Where should the remaining 88 million people put their passion and their wallets?
That is precisely the question Heiyu is considering. This former Alibaba product manager and founder of Dayou Space is answering it in a way that sounds rather "geeky": move concerts from offline to online? No. He wants to reinvent what it means to "be there."
Not an Auditorium, but an Amusement Park
If you imagine a "virtual concert," what appears in your mind? A high-definition 3D figure singing on a screen? Wearing VR glasses and sitting listlessly in a virtual front row?
Heiyu believes none of those approaches will work. His answer is more like a massive multiplayer party game.
Imagine that you enter not a stadium but a surreal amusement park. Michael Jackson does not stand onstage; he takes you flying through a rain of pink petals. You do not quietly "watch" but jump around with fans worldwide, take pictures wildly, and squeeze beside your idol for close contact.
Last year, Dayou Space held a rap awards ceremony attended by 24 rappers, including Vinida and Pharaoh. Heiyu remembers the scene clearly: fans poured onto the platform from across China for no other reason than to take a photo with their idol and exchange a few words. That relaxed, happy feeling is something an offline concert cannot provide. Offline, even if you spend thousands of yuan on a ticket, you can only watch from far away. Here, your idol may be "holding you in the palm of their hand" and looking directly at you.
This is the line Heiyu repeatedly emphasizes: space is not content; space is a container in which relationships happen. You can buy a ticket to watch content, but a relationship requires "being there."
The Real Payment Logic: I Want to Be Seen, and I Want Others to See That I Was Seen
In discussing the business model, Heiyu displays the clarity characteristic of an Alibaba product manager. He says directly that fans do not want simply to "watch a performance," but three things:
First, I was really part of it. This is the most basic "sense of presence."
Second, I truly contributed, and the idol can see it. This confirms emotional value.
Third, I want other people to know that I contributed. This circulates social currency.
That is why you see designs that appear "gamified": the path beneath major contributors glows, and their clothes differ from everyone else's; higher-level users do not walk in but arrive roaring in flying cars.
On the surface these designs look like showing off, but underneath is a social logic: make emotional value visible, transmissible, and comparable. Fans who spend money want not only their idol to see it, but also their social-media circles and fan communities, thereby establishing their social standing.
Livestreaming solves "watching together"; space must solve "being together." Watching together means posting comments, lighting fan signs, and sending gifts. The excitement is real, but glass separates you from everyone else. Being together means crowding into the same corner with friends, taking photos, chatting, and flooding social media with pictures of trying to "squeeze beside the idol."
This experience comes from a deeply human detail: you do not need to organize words to perform yourself; you merely need to walk over.
AI Is Not the Star Here, but the "Stage Manager"
When discussing AI, Heiyu takes a highly pragmatic position. He divides AI's role into two layers, neither stealing the show but both essential.
The first layer is communication. Large language models translate, remove information barriers, and create NPC characters that "speak like people." As soon as you enter, a character draws you in with the appropriate tone, telling you how to play, reminding you of tasks, and raising the emotional energy. Its purpose is not to display the model's power, but to reduce awkwardness, confusion, and the impulse to withdraw because "perhaps I do not belong here."
Dayou Space and MiniMax are strategic partners and apply precisely this logic. At an earlier metaverse theater festival, a character used the tone and cadence of Faust to draw people into the story, a typical application of this kind of emotional guidance.
The second layer is visual generation. Automatic 3D-model generation, video-trailer production, and research into new technologies such as Gaussian Splatting all have a direct objective: reduce content-production costs and make "splendor" easier to achieve. Stage design was once expensive and slow; now it is beginning to scale like "generating an image."
So what is AI more like here? It resembles a "stage manager": enabling people from different countries to communicate smoothly while building scenes faster, more beautifully, and more cheaply. It does not steal the star's role, but it determines whether the lights come on when the star appears.
From UGC to UGS: Jump into the Mud First, Then Pave the Road
Many metaverse platforms proclaim UGC from the outset, hoping users will build their own houses and worlds. Heiyu is calm about this and even somewhat dismissive.
"Early-stage UGC cannot produce good content because there is no way to use so many foundational capabilities."
He draws on his experience building Taobao's open platform. At the time, nobody believed branded goods could be sold on Taobao. The entire team "jumped in," helping Uniqlo migrate line by line and leveling every pit before Tmall could later flourish.
Today, they are doing the same with a Michael Jackson virtual concert. From a broadcast-control desk with 12 camera positions to the logic of every interactive segment, the Dayou Space team first "jumps in" and finishes the dirty, exhausting work itself. After proving the model, it opens the capabilities to more people—in fact, they are already open to students at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Sichuan Fine Arts Institute for creating Open Space.
Heiyu has even coined a distinctive new term: UGS, or User Generated Space.
The meaning behind the term is expansive: content is a work, while space is a setting. A work is watched; a setting allows people to meet. Once you can generate a "setting," you are generating not only content but also a relationship that might occur.
Over the next two or three years, as AI lowers the threshold further, an ordinary young woman may need only to speak to generate her own "virtual wedding" or "personal concert."
VR Is Not the Only Gateway, but It Determines the Experience Ceiling
Regarding devices, Heiyu is pragmatic: VR's immersive experience represents an epochal leap, and anyone who has experienced VR social interaction absolutely does not want to return to a phone. Yet device adoption still requires time.
The short-term strategy is interoperability across devices: cover PC, tablets, and phones first, while using VR for the ultimate experience. Travis Scott's concert in Fortnite had 19 million users; Lil Nas X's concert on Roblox recorded 32 million attendances. Neither relied on VR devices.
The first step toward mass adoption is never perfection, but accessibility. Let people enter first; only then can immersion be discussed.
Dayou Space's strategy is to let high-end fans enjoy a Disney-level ultimate experience in large VR spaces while allowing massive numbers of fans to participate anytime and anywhere by phone or PC. Devices are only the channel; experience is the destination.
Three to Five Years from Now, Social Interaction May Shift from "Posting Updates" to "Leaving Traces"
Heiyu's vision of the future is specific:
Lighter and thinner XR glasses, following the evolution of principles behind products such as Vision Pro, will interact fully with foundation models. One day, you will wear glasses and AI will remind you that your favorite star is holding a concert. You will say "go watch," and immediately enter the venue. You will choose clothes by voice, join viewers worldwide in recording clips of yourselves sharing the stage with the star, and then share it naturally.
The more "radical" part is what he calls "delegated interaction." Your idol will have an AI Avatar, and you will also delegate an avatar to communicate on your behalf. When a friend comes to find you, they may actually be chatting with your avatar. It can retrieve a video of your recent run and show it to your friend, relieving the psychological pressure of retouching pictures and writing copy before posting on social media.
Much of the exhaustion of modern social interaction comes from the "cost of expression." When AI takes over that cost, socializing may return from "performing" to "appearing." You no longer need to act like a content editor every time; you only need to act like a living person.
In the past, we "posted updates" in social apps; in the future, we may "leave traces" in spaces. Put more colloquially: in the past, you relied on copy to hold the scene; in the future, simply "appearing" may be enough.
A Product Manager Who "Begins with the End": The End State Is Social Interaction Without Interfaces
Heiyu says the book he has read most is Alan Cooper's About Face, on the essentials of interaction design. The book predicts that the ultimate form of human interaction will be interaction between people, without the concepts of software, interfaces, or information feeds. It is like our conversations: the subject is the person and the operation is language, rather than clicking.
This is his image of the "perfect social product."
But he also acknowledges that one cannot reach "user-generated agents" in a single step. He therefore begins with the most influential idol scenarios, because idols bring their own crowds, emotions, and social networks. First solve the hardest problem, "being together," and then distribute the capability to everyone.
Alibaba product managers have a characteristic called "beginning with the end." Heiyu identified this end state and began building toward it. But reaching the end requires moving step by step.
Put more directly, he is not "building a metaverse." He is using concerts as a training ground to practice three elements of next-generation social interaction: presence, interaction, and identity.
Closing Thoughts: Space Will Become a New Unit of Content
After the interview, my strongest impression was that Heiyu is not moving offline activity online; he is redefining what it means to "be there."
People come not to see a more dazzling stage, but to enter a setting where relationships can happen.
People pay not to buy a performance, but to purchase confirmation that "I was part of it."
People stay not because the technology is advanced, but because they can be more like themselves there and be seen by others more easily.
If this judgment is correct, "space" will no longer be merely the shell of content, but will become a new unit of content—just as short video was not a compressed form of long video but an entirely new unit of narrative.
Space may bring the same change: from "I show you" to "we are here together."
In this restless era when everyone invokes "foundation models," Heiyu and Dayou Space offer a rare perspective: technology should not be merely cold computing power; it should be a place with warmth. No matter how times change, human souls afraid of loneliness will always need a space in which to settle. There is light, music, companionship, and the dreams within our reach.
Selected Q&A
Q1: What is Dayou Space's core positioning?
Heiyu: Dayou Space hopes to use its spatial and platform technologies to become an open space, beginning with concerts and major commercial events and eventually enabling everyone to afford their own online spatial events. I have always defined myself as a product manager, and the ultimate product I want to make must be a social product. In the Web 4.0 proposed by the European Union and the future metanetwork space, spatial settings will become one of the most important places where human social interaction occurs.
Q2: What will ordinary users experience when they enter Dayou Space?
Heiyu: We now focus on scenarios for interaction between idols and fans. A user's first impression upon entering is that they can join the idol in a massive Party Game as though playing with a friend. For example, the idol will take you flying, jumping across pink petals while everyone takes pictures together. That kind of interaction cannot be achieved at an offline concert; it creates a form of online intimacy. The number of people an online event can reach and this intimacy of sharing the same setting cannot be replaced by livestreams, video, or text.
Q3: How does a virtual concert experience differ from an offline concert?
Heiyu: Even with an expensive ticket to an offline concert, you can only watch quietly; the idol cannot shake your hand or play a game with you. A virtual concert is more like a massive multiplayer game. Visually, it offers splendor that an offline event can never achieve, with fully 360-degree digital-art environments. Interactively, the idol is beside you and can hold you in the palm of their hand and look directly at you. But we have never believed online events will replace offline events; they complement each other.
Q4: What is the core logic behind user payments?
Heiyu: The essence of this business model is not simply paying for content. Fans want to help their idol make the concert happen and receive emotional value: "I really was part of it, I genuinely contributed to it, and the idol can see that." If you contribute more, your clothing differs from everyone else's, your path glows, and even your body may emit light. Higher-level people enter in flying cars. After spending money, fans do not merely want to consume content; they also want to show it off—not just to their idol, but to friends, establishing their standing in the fan community. The essence underneath is therefore social logic.
Q5: What role does AI play in Dayou Space?
Heiyu: AI has two parts. The first is large language models. We use mature interfaces, including those from strategic partner MiniMax, to shape conversations between NPCs and viewers, including guidance on entry rules and party-game task design. This belongs to emotional companionship and emotional guidance. The second is content production, including video-trailer production and automatic 3D-model generation. This year, 3D-model generation has become extremely fast. We are researching the latest Gaussian Splatting technology and will soon apply it to concerts.
Q6: Why create official content before opening UGC from the outset?
Heiyu: Early-stage UGC cannot produce good content because there is no way to use so many foundational capabilities. While working on Taobao's open platform at Alibaba, I learned that a platform first needs to produce demonstrative, benchmark content. For example, when we built the first brand store on Taobao Mall, Uniqlo, our entire team jumped in to serve it for 2 months and moved all the engineering onto Taobao before it became a benchmark. Building the Michael Jackson concert is the same: we first complete all the commercial logic and functional stages of a concert from beginning to end, even the broadcast-control desk, and then open it to every developer.
Q7: Will there be user-generated content in the future? What specific form will it take?
Heiyu: In every future social space, each person should have their own Open Space. We call it UGS, or User Generated Space, rather than UGC. We have already opened it to institutions including the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Sichuan Fine Arts Institute for students to create Open Space. As AI technology matures, we believe that within two or three years, everyone will quickly be able to have a personal concert or the wedding space a young woman wants.
Q8: Are VR devices necessary? What are the barriers to adoption?
Heiyu: VR's immersive experience represents an epochal leap, and anyone who has experienced VR social interaction absolutely does not want to return to a phone; core-user stickiness is extremely high. But device penetration remains insufficient and will grow over the next three to five years. Our strategy is interoperability across devices: focus principally on PC and phones while selecting large VR spaces or operators to provide the ultimate experience. For example, a Travis Scott concert available only on PC still had 19 million users; a Lil Nas X concert available only on phones still recorded 32 million attendances. High-end fans can enjoy VR, while massive numbers of fans can interact anytime and anywhere by phone/PC.
Q9: Three to five years from now, what scenarios will ordinary people experience in virtual spaces?
Heiyu: The ultimate form follows XR principles such as Vision Pro. Future glasses will be lighter and thinner and interact fully with AI foundation models. You will wear the glasses, and AI will tell you that your favorite star has a concert. You will simply say "go watch" and immediately enter the venue. You will select clothing by voice, join viewers worldwide in recording video clips of yourselves sharing the stage with the star, and share it with your social circle. By then, not only will idols delegate their own AI Avatar, but you will delegate an avatar to communicate as well. When a friend chats with you, they will actually communicate with your avatar, which can retrieve your workout video and show it to them. This removes the psychological pressure of retouching pictures and editing copy before posting on social media and returns social interaction to a pure, natural state.
Q10: Why did you choose to build a product for spatial social interaction?
Heiyu: This is my image of the perfect social product. The book I read most in the past was Alan Cooper's About Face, on interaction-design essentials. It predicted that the ultimate form of human interaction would be interaction between people, without the concepts of software, interfaces, or information feeds. It is like our conversation: the subject is the person and the operation is language. This fluid, unforced form of social interaction can help introverted people express themselves. Alibaba product managers are characterized by "beginning with the end." I identified this as the end state and began building toward it. But we cannot reach User Generate Agent in a single step, so we are starting with the most influential idols and proceeding step by step toward the end state.
Q11: What labels do you hope Dayou Space will have three years from now?
Heiyu: First, globalization. I hope not only we, but everyone working in AI in China, will take a global perspective. Second, a spirit of exploration. I hope people will see us as the first team to truly implement the latest social methods and models with AI. Third, a next-generation social venue. I hope people will begin to recognize that space will become the next generation's social venue or principal form of content. Of course, ideally we ourselves will also become a platform with more than 100 million users.