Meta’s Reality Labs posts $4.4 billion loss in third quarter
Meta's Reality Labs unit, which develops augmented and virtual reality technologies, logged an operating loss of $4.4 billion in the third quarter.
Despite Meta's successful showcase of its Orion prototype AR glasses in September, the social media giant continues to lose billions of dollars a quarter developing the still nascent metaverse.
Meta reported third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, in which it said its Reality Labs unit, which develops augmented and virtual reality technologies, logged an operating loss of $4.4 billion. Analysts polled by StreetAccount were expecting that unit to post an operating loss of $4.68 billion.
Reality Labs revenue rose 29% year over year to $270 million in the third quarter, below analysts' expectations of $310.4 million. Reality Labs primarily makes money through selling Meta's Quest VR headsets and the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
Meta first entered the VR market in 2014 when it was still named Facebook and bought the VR startup Oculus for $2 billion.
Facebook co-founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes developing VR and AR technology could position the company to become a leader in what could become the next major personal computing platform.
The investment has been costly for Meta. After the company's Wednesday earnings report, Reality Labs has an operating loss of more than $58 billion since 2020.
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