Mark Zuckerberg, chief govt officer of Meta Platforms Inc., demonstrates the Meta Quest Professional through the digital Meta Join occasion in New York, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
Mark Zuckerberg’s dream of a future within the metaverse is costing traders a boatload of cash.
In its earnings report after the bell on Wednesday, Meta mentioned its Actuality Labs division, residence to the corporate’s digital actuality applied sciences and initiatives, posted a $4.28 billion working loss within the fourth quarter, bringing its complete for 2022 to $13.72 billion.
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It was a troublesome first full 12 months for the brand new Meta, the corporate previously often called Fb. In late 2021, Zuckerberg modified the corporate’s identify and mentioned its future could be within the metaverse, a digital universe the place individuals will work, store, play and be taught.
However for now, it is only a value heart, and Meta remains to be a web-based advert firm.
Actuality Labs generated $727 million within the fourth quarter, and $2.16 billion in income for all of 2022 — a decline from $2.27 billion in 2021 — together with gross sales of Quest headsets. In different phrases, the division misplaced greater than six occasions the sum of money it generated in income final 12 months, whereas accounting for lower than 2% of complete gross sales at Meta.
Analysts have been anticipating Actuality Labs to file an quarterly working lack of $4.36 billion on income of $715.1 million, in response to StreetAccount.
Gross sales of VR headsets within the U.S. declined 2% in 2022 from the prior 12 months as of early December, in response to information shared with CNBC by analysis agency NPD Group.
In July, Meta introduced it was elevating the worth of its Quest 2 VR headset by $100. The corporate mentioned on the time that the worth hike was essential to account for inflationary pressures. Meta then debuted its dearer Quest Professional VR headset in October, pitching it to firms as an enterprise-workplace machine for $1,500. This week, Meta is operating a sale on its high-end VR headset, shaving off $400 for a restricted time.
Zuckerberg advised CNBC’s Jim Cramer final summer time that he hopes to “get to round a billion individuals within the metaverse doing lots of of {dollars} of commerce” by the second half of the last decade.
However earlier than the Fb founder’s goals develop into a actuality, Meta has to spend many billions of {dollars} creating the VR and augmented-reality applied sciences that underpin the metaverse idea.
The corporate mentioned final 12 months that it expects “Actuality Labs working losses in 2023 will develop considerably year-over-year.”
“Past 2023, we anticipate to tempo Actuality Labs investments such that we will obtain our purpose of rising general firm working earnings in the long term,” Meta mentioned on the time.
Shareholders have been lower than thrilled with the outcomes to this point. Meta misplaced nearly two-thirds of its worth final 12 months as metaverse prices soared and the corporate’s core on-line advert enterprise suffered from a struggling financial system, elevated competitors from TikTok and Apple’s privateness replace, limiting advert focusing on.
The corporate on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter outcomes that beat analysts’ income estimates and introduced a $40 billion buyback, sending the refill greater than 17% in prolonged buying and selling.
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