An avatar of Mark Zuckerberg, chief govt officer of Meta Platforms Inc., speaks in the course of the digital Meta Connect occasion in New York, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg retains racking up losses from his metaverse investments whereas downsizing his social media firm by means of price cuts.
In its first-quarter earnings report on Wednesday, Meta mentioned its Reality Labs unit, which is tasked with constructing the digital actuality and augmented actuality applied sciences for the futuristic metaverse, recorded a $3.99 billion working loss.
The unit generated $339 million in income in the course of the quarter, a minuscule sum for an organization that brings in tens of billions of {dollars} 1 / 4 in promoting gross sales.
The loss did slim, nevertheless, from $4.28 billion within the earlier quarter on $727 million in income.
For all of final yr, Reality Labs recorded an working lack of $13.72 billion on $2.16 billion in gross sales, underscoring how VR and AR applied sciences have but to succeed in the mainstream.
Zuckerberg has touted 2023 as the corporate’s “year of efficiency” and has applied main cost-cutting initiatives that embody layoffs focusing on an anticipated 21,000 workers.
But whereas the corporate slims down, it is nonetheless pumping billions of {dollars} into the metaverse after altering its title from Facebook to Meta in late 2021.
Data offered to CNBC by analysis agency NPD Group confirmed that gross sales of VR headsets within the U.S. declined 2% yr over yr as of early December 2022.
In March, Meta lower the worth of its Quest 2 VR headset in addition to the high-end Quest Pro. The Quest 2 now prices $70 lower than earlier than, promoting for $430, whereas the worth of the Quest Pro was diminished by $500 to $1,000.
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Source: www.cnbc.com