Meta Reality Labs loses $4.65B in Q4

Meta reported that it lost $4.65 billion in the fourth quarter in its metaverse-focused Reality Labs division.

Whatever you think of that loss, it means that Meta’s metaverse division is still spending a lot of money on research and development.

In the previous third quarter, Meta reported that it lost $3.7 billion in the third quarter in its metaverse-focused Reality Labs division. Reality Labs is Meta’s metaverse, virtual reality and augmented reality division, with businesses such as the Meta Quest 3 and the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses.

Reality Labs reported a loss of $4.65 billion for the three months ended December 31, higher than the loss of $4.28 billion in the same quarter a year ago. For the year ended December 31, Reality Labs lost $16.1 billion, higher than the year before at $13.7 billion.

Of course, Meta’s Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram family of apps are hugely profitable, generating $21 billion in profit for the quarter, resulting in a net profit from operations of $16.4 billion.

Overall Meta is on the mend, with profits of $14.0 billion on revenue of $40.1 billion in the quarter, up from profits of $4.6 billion on revenue of $32.1 billion a year ago.

For Reality Labs, Meta said it expects operating losses to increase meaningfully year-over-year due to the ongoing product development efforts in augmented reality/virtual reality and our investments to further scale our ecosystem.

Meta has about 67,000 employees, down from 66,000 in the previous quarter and down 22% from a year ago. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Meta has now been trying to catch up on hiring to fill open positions.

Meta is getting competition tomorrow from Apple as it launches the Apple Vision Pro, which is launching with 600 tailored apps.