The term "metaverse" is the latest buzzword to capture the tech industry's imagination, especially since Facebook renamed itself Meta last month to signal its business shift. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, described it as a "virtual environment" where people can go inside instead of just looking at it on a screen. They can meet, work and play in the digital world, using virtual reality (VR) headsets, augmented reality (AR) glasses, smartphone apps or other devices. To be clear, no one knows yet what the metaverse will look like, as the whole concept is still in the early period. But its development must be demand-oriented, Shen Yang, a researcher at Tsinghua University who follows the emerging realm very closely, told CGTN.