Meta Reports Significant Losses In Metaverse Business

According to PANews, Meta's latest financial report reveals that its metaverse business continues to incur substantial quarterly losses. On Wednesday, Meta announced its third-quarter earnings, indicating that the Reality Labs division, responsible for developing augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies, experienced an operating loss of $4.43 billion. This loss is slightly lower than the $4.68 billion anticipated by analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. Reality Labs' revenue for the third quarter increased by 29% year-over-year to $270 million, falling short of analysts' expectations of $310.4 million. The division primarily generates revenue through the sale of Meta's Quest VR headsets and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. Meta, formerly known as Facebook, entered the VR market in 2014 with the $2 billion acquisition of VR startup Oculus. CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes that developing VR and AR technologies will position the company as a leader in the next major personal computing platform. However, this investment has been costly for Meta, with Reality Labs' cumulative operating losses exceeding $58 billion since 2020.