Meta, formerly Facebook, officially announced its entry to the metaverse last year through the Reality Labs division. The announcement of Meta (formerly Facebook) had triggered the popularity of metaverse projects during that time and tokens, which went on to rise to billions in market capital. While Meta was able to generate positive growth for metaverse projects in the past, it is now reporting another quarter of huge losses.
Meta’s Reality Labs Records Losses
Since Meta’s entry into the space via its Reality Labs division, the tech giant has been unable to secure any positive returns. The metaverse division reported losses in every quarter since, with losses that have reached double-digit billions.
According to the latest report, Meta metaverse reported a loss of $3.6 million for its third quarter in 2022. This will be the division’s highest quarterly loss to date but it follows the established trend of losses since inception.
Reality Labs posted a $2.63 Billion loss for the same period in 2021. Next, in 2022’s second quarter, Reality Labs reported a $2.8 billion loss. This brings the overall losses to the division at $9.43 billion in one year. Reality Labs’ Q3 2022 revenue came out to a total of $285 million, which is the lowest revenue figure so far.
Meta's Q3 financial highlights | Source: Meta
It appears that the company is on track to surpass its 2021 metaverse losses volumes of about $10 billion. Presently, Meta is only about $500 million in losses away from beating its last year’s figures.
What time will the Bleed stop?
Reality Labs may have spent billions on research and development, Meta does not intend to stop dreaming of its metaverse. Although the company is continuing to tread water, it has not yet revealed its plans for next year.
Meta’s Q3 earnings report states that Reality Labs will experience even greater losses in 2023, according to the company. Dave Whener, Meta’s Chief Financial Officer, said that the metaverse division is actually anticipating more losses in the new year. “Beyond 2023, we expect to pace Reality Labs investments such that we can achieve our goal of growing overall company operating income in the long run,” Whener revealed.
Despite the losses, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg believes that what Reality Labs is building is ‘better for everyone.’ Zuckerberg alluded to the fact that Meta is building an open metaverse which is superior to closed ecosystems being developed by some competitors.
Reality Labs, which was founded in 2020, has released multiple VR headsets to provide an immersive experience. The metaverse division has launched Meta’s “Horizon Worlds” which is currently available in multiple countries worldwide and accessible with Oculus VR headsets.
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