Meta's Reality Labs reports US$3.7 billion loss in Q3

Reality Labs - Meta's division in charge of its metaverse efforts – reported losing over US$ 3.6 billion in the third quarter of this year. Earlier this year, it lost US$ 2.9 billion and US$ 2.8 billion in the first and second quarters, respectively.

The division has recorded losses of over US$9.43 billion this year alone. Last year, it lost over US$10 billion, making a combined loss of around US$ 20 billion within both periods.

'We do anticipate that Reality Labs operating losses in 2023 will grow significantly year-over-year,' Meta's quarterly report read. '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.'

In the Q3 performance call on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Meta is working on other metaverse-related projects asides from Horizon Worlds – its social metaverse platform – and virtual reality (VR). He said the company is putting significant effort into augmented reality (AR) and neural interface platforms.

'I get that a lot of people might disagree with this investment. But from what I can tell, I think that this is going to be a very important thing, and I think it would be a mistake for us to not focus on any of these areas, which I think are going to be fundamentally important to the future,' Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg and Meta's metaverse ambitions have been chiefly received with ridicule and criticism online because people feel the company has nothing impressive to show for its efforts and expenses.

Meta's Horizon Worlds received a fresh bout of criticism earlier this month when it announced the addition of legs for its avatars. It was revealed that the legs displayed at the demo were 'animations created from motion capture' rather than live VR.

Despite the poor feedback from the community and successive losses his company has experienced, Zuckerberg remains convinced about the metaverse's global potential.

Photo: Forbes