Tech giant Meta reports a loss of $13.7 billion in 2022 for its Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) meta-unit.
FRL reported a loss of $4.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, down from an estimate of $4.4 billion and up from a third-quarter loss of $3.7 billion. Meta FRL’s Metaworld division lost $2.81 billion in the second quarter of 2022 .
In total, Meta lost $13.7 billion in the division in 2022 on revenues of $2.2 billion, compared to a loss of $10.2 billion on revenues of $2.3 billion in 2021.
In addition, Meta reported fourth-quarter FRL revenue of $727 million, up from $285 million in the third quarter but below the division’s $877 million revenue in the prior year.
All of Meta’s divisions and applications combined brought in revenue of $32.1 billion, above the expected $31.53 billion.
Last November, Meta prepared staff cuts as its grandiose ambitions for the meta universe cooled as fears emerged from growing dissatisfaction among shareholders. Even Metaverse’s flagship app, Horizon Worlds, has struggled to attract new users.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he expects the Reality Labs ecosystem to expand significantly over the next few years while talking to analysts about earnings and losses.
Later this year, Meta intends to release its newest consumer VR headset, Quest 3. Zuckerberg said he would “set this technology as the basis for all future headsets, and eventually, of course, AR [augmented reality] glasses.”
At the press conference, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the upcoming fiscal year “the year of efficiency.” Zuckerberg emphasized that Reality Labs is not facing closure, but rather deserves an extension.
Zuckerberg stated, “Our priorities haven’t changed. The two main technology waves that define our roadmap today are AI, and in the long term, the meta-universe.”
Last May, Mark Zuckerberg said he expects the Meta universe to result in “significant” losses in the short term. He believes that the meta-universe plan will cause losses for up to 5 years, which will severely affect the company’s stock, but in the long run will bring profits.
