Alex Omenye
Last year, Meta suffered a significant loss on its investment in its futuristic VR-connected social vision.
Meta started separating its Reality Labs VR and AR branch into its own sector in 2021. It is now easy to view the astonishing amounts of money that Meta is investing in certain areas.
In contrast to the already staggering $10.2 billion it invested in the business in 2021, Meta announced operational losses for Reality Labs of $13.7 billion for 2022. Revenue for Reality Labs dropped from $2.27 billion in 2021 to $2.16 billion last year.
Starting in 2021, Meta began breaking out its Reality Labs VR and AR division into its own segment for financial reporting purposes. That makes it possible to see just how much Meta is pouring into those areas, and the numbers are staggering.
In 2014, Meta bought Oculus — the pioneering VR hardware company for $2 billion. The company’s investment in the sector as Meta in major software companies like Beat Saber’s creator and now Within, developer of the virtual workout app Supernatural.
“…We’re going to continue to invest meaningfully in this area given the significant long-term opportunities that we see,” Li said, calling its AR, VR and metaverse software efforts “a long-duration investment.” Meta’s CFO Susan Li says the company expects 2023 annual losses for Reality Labs to be higher.
In the pipeline, Meta plans to launch a next-gen consumer headset later in the year. It would be a revamped version of its Quest hardware featuring mixed reality.
Apple, one of Meta’s competitor is also expected to launch a new AR/VR headset soon.