Meta revenue to grow 16% in 2023, Metaverse division still losing money

Meta (formerly Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently revealed details of the company’s revenue for the past quarter. Between September and December, Meta’s revenue was $40.1 billion (approximately Rs. 3,34,416 crore). By 2023, the social media and Web3 giant’s total revenue will reach $134.9 billion (approximately Rs. 11,25,119 crore). Each year, Meta’s revenue soars 16%. Interestingly, however, Meta’s Reality Labs unit has only posted a loss since 2021.

in a earnings report Zuckerberg acknowledged in a March 4 post that it was going through a good period in terms of revenue. Despite losses at his Reality Labs unit, the tech mogul praised the move for bringing advances in emerging advanced technologies.

“We had a great quarter as our community and business continue to grow,” the 39-year-old billionaire said in a statement. “We’ve made great progress in advancing our vision for artificial intelligence and virtual universes. “

Zuckerberg renamed Facebook Meta in 2021, confirming his commitment to exploring the virtual world. At that time, a new department called Reality Labs was established within the company. This particular agency is tasked with conducting research and development around the Metaverse and its use cases.

Over the past three years, Reality Labs has released Metaverse and augmented reality (AR) hardware products, such as the Quest VR headset series, to further promote these technologies.As of March 2023, Meta has It is said Quest headset sales reached 20 million units.

However, despite its efforts, Meta’s Reality Labs division has only posted a loss in revenue.Yuan It is said It was revealed in February this year that Reality Labs suffered a loss of US$46.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, but had revenue of nearly US$11 billion (approximately Rs. 91,744 crore).

Prior to this, Reality Labs had lost $13.7 billion (approximately Rs. 1,12,200 crore) in 2022.

Despite these financial consequences, Zuckerberg is maintaining his predictions for the coming metaverse boom. In May 2023, Meta commissioned a study claiming that Metaverse could contribute up to $760 billion (approximately Rs. 62,36,088 crore) to the annual gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States by 2035, which is approximately 2.4 %.