Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms (META) continued posting losses for its augmented and virtual reality division Reality Labs, according to its Q4 earnings release.
The metaverse-focused division posted a colossal $4.28 billion loss for the final quarter of 2022, taking its overall losses for the year to a staggering $13.72 billion.
Reality Labs generated only $727 million in revenue during the final months of 2022, a decrease of 17% compared to the revenue in the same period of the previous year. In contrast, the company had posted a loss of $10.2 billion on revenue of $2.3 billion in 2021.
Despite the loss, Reality Labs remains committed to its vision of building a metaverse and will continue to invest in its research and development efforts.
Currently, Reality Labs creates hardware and software for virtual and augmented reality experiences, such as the Quest VR headset and the Horizon Worlds metaverse initiative.
In recent months, the company has made several strategic partnerships with other tech companies and has acquired several startups in the virtual and augmented reality space.
“Even though none of the signals I’ve seen so far suggest that we should shift the Reality Labs strategy long-term, we are constantly adjusting the specifics of how we execute this,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The CEO had earlier stated the losses are expected to grow further in 2023. “We’re going to continue to invest meaningfully in this area given the significant long-term opportunities that we see,” added Susan Li, Meta’s Chief Financial Officer.
In spite of the metaverse blues, Meta beat analysts’ estimates of $31.6 billion, posting $32.2 billion in revenue. However, the company missed EPS estimates of $2.26 and posted an EPS of $1.76 for the fourth quarter.
