Meta's Reality Labs losses increase to $3.7 billion
Meta's third-quarter financial results for fiscal year 2022 are showing that the company's Reality Labs division (which houses the company known as Oculus, a number of game studios and other VR/AR hardware projects) is losing more money than ever. In the three-month period ending September 30, 2022, the division posted a loss of $3.67 billion, and only earned $285 million in revenue during the same period.
In the same period in 2021, Reality Labs lost $2.6 billion on $558 million in revenue. That means Meta's metaverse losses have increased by 39.5 percent, and its revenue has shrunk 48 percent year-over-year.
Does this mean Meta is running out of money? Not for the moment. Its advertising revenue is still earth-shatteringly high, clocking in at $27 billion this quarter (a three percent dip over last year's $28 billion in revenue). Its "Family of Apps" company division managed to shrink its losses by 28 percent, only losing $9 billion in revenue over the $13 billion it lost in the third quarter of 2021.
However, the company's profits have shrunk 46 percent year-over-year from $10 billion in profit to $5 billion in profit, and that bleeding isn't being stemmed anytime soon. Chief financial officer David Wehner wrote that the company expects Reality Labs' operating losses will "grow significantly year-over-year in 2023."
"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," he added. That implies that Meta is still gambling on its Metaverse investments as being reliable revenue drivers in the decade ahead.
Legs. Okay, not just legs. Also VR studios, and an intense amount of R&D on technology that will power Mark Zuckerberg's dream
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