Meta's Metaverse Division made a loss of $13.72 Billion USD in 2022
Despite these negative figures, Meta's management is optimistic, and the metaverse project is still a top priority for them.
During Wednesday afternoon’s stock market trading, Meta's share price rose more than 18%. The reason was the company's quarterly earnings report, which was better than expected. Unfortunately, despite this, the metaverse division remains in the red.
Reality Labs, which focuses on Meta's Metaverse, lost a staggering $4.28 billion USD in the last fiscal quarter of 2022, a new low for the division. Meta's metaverse has been repeatedly touted as the future of the company, but after Wednesday's announcement, the metaverse division's total loss for 2022 has increased to an astronomical $13.72 billion USD.
In the final quarter of 2022, the division earned only $727 million USD, 17% less than the revenue reported in the same period of 2021.
Reality Labs designs hardware and software for VR (Virtual Reality) and augmented reality, including the Quest virtual reality headset and the Horizon Worlds metaverse project.
Despite all the negative numbers, Meta's management was in good spirits on Wednesday's quarterly earnings call, as it beat overall forecasts for revenue, daily active users, monthly active users, and average revenue per user.
Most interestingly, the company made a profit of $32.1 billion USD in revenue from all departments and applications, beating revenue forecasts of $31.53 billion USD.
Mark Zuckerberg called the coming year "a year of efficiency," which he kicked off with his decision to lay off 11 000 employees in November. Zuckerberg insisted that these layoffs will not have a major impact on Meta, but that they will keep the company alive. "We're going to be more proactive about shutting down projects that aren't performing," he said. The metaverse project is still a priority, however, and the company's management has not indicated that it will be canceled or put on hold.
Zuckerberg made it clear on Wednesday that Reality Labs has nothing to worry about and instead deserves a further, even larger, investment. "Our priorities haven't changed," Zuckerberg said. "The two major technology waves driving our plan today are artificial intelligence and, in the longer term, the metaverse."
Zuckerberg was optimistic about the next-generation VR headset, Quest 3, which is expected to be unveiled later this year. "I expect this technology [ Quest 3] to become the basis for all headsets and, eventually, augmented reality headsets," he said.
Meta believes this new headset will not only increase hardware revenue in the division, but that it will also bring new users to the Horizon Worlds VR ecosystem, which Zuckerberg believes is the future of interactive business, entertainment, and social interaction.
In October 2022, a report surfaced saying that despite the tens of billions of dollars that go into funding Reality Labs, Horizon Worlds is so difficult and uncomfortable to use that even the employees of Meta, the company behind the project, don't want to use it.
Source: decrypt.co
analyst opinion
Jakub Odvářka
During Wednesday afternoon’s stock market trading, Meta's share price rose more than 18%. The reason was the company's quarterly earnings report, which was better than expected. Unfortunately, despite this, the metaverse division remains in the red.
Reality Labs, which focuses on Meta's Metaverse, lost a staggering $4.28 billion USD in the last fiscal quarter of 2022, a new low for the division. Meta's metaverse has been repeatedly touted as the future of the company, but after Wednesday's announcement, the metaverse division's total loss for 2022 has increased to an astronomical $13.72 billion USD.
In the final quarter of 2022, the division earned only $727 million USD, 17% less than the revenue reported in the same period of 2021.
Reality Labs designs hardware and software for VR (Virtual Reality) and augmented reality, including the Quest virtual reality headset and the Horizon Worlds metaverse project.
Despite all the negative numbers, Meta's management was in good spirits on Wednesday's quarterly earnings call, as it beat overall forecasts for revenue, daily active users, monthly active users, and average revenue per user.
Most interestingly, the company made a profit of $32.1 billion USD in revenue from all departments and applications, beating revenue forecasts of $31.53 billion USD.
Mark Zuckerberg called the coming year "a year of efficiency," which he kicked off with his decision to lay off 11 000 employees in November. Zuckerberg insisted that these layoffs will not have a major impact on Meta, but that they will keep the company alive. "We're going to be more proactive about shutting down projects that aren't performing," he said. The metaverse project is still a priority, however, and the company's management has not indicated that it will be canceled or put on hold.
Zuckerberg made it clear on Wednesday that Reality Labs has nothing to worry about and instead deserves a further, even larger, investment. "Our priorities haven't changed," Zuckerberg said. "The two major technology waves driving our plan today are artificial intelligence and, in the longer term, the metaverse."
Zuckerberg was optimistic about the next-generation VR headset, Quest 3, which is expected to be unveiled later this year. "I expect this technology [ Quest 3] to become the basis for all headsets and, eventually, augmented reality headsets," he said.
Meta believes this new headset will not only increase hardware revenue in the division, but that it will also bring new users to the Horizon Worlds VR ecosystem, which Zuckerberg believes is the future of interactive business, entertainment, and social interaction.
In October 2022, a report surfaced saying that despite the tens of billions of dollars that go into funding Reality Labs, Horizon Worlds is so difficult and uncomfortable to use that even the employees of Meta, the company behind the project, don't want to use it.
Source: decrypt.co
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