Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in their latest earnings call that they would continue their Metaverse project, despite the crippling losses.
After rebranding to Meta Platforms Inc, the company started incorporating other tech services, including virtual and augmented reality. Famously called Reality Labs, the venture has suffered epic losses due to the lack of breakthroughs in the sector. But despite all these, the CEO of the tech company has revealed that they would be going on with their project. Meta Metaverse investment has suffered losses worth billions of dollars, but this is not deterring the company at the moment.
What Meta has been building is a virtual world through the use of tools such as VR headsets. According to Mark Zuckerberg, one of the reasons why the losses aren't deterring them is because they know that building the metaverse is a long-term project.
During the earnings call, the CEO of the tech giant said they were still committed to it, and "the rationale for it remains the same and we remain committed to it." Zuckerberg noted that he is aware that a narrative is starting to grow that Meta is now moving away from their project. He assured those who still believed in their project that they were 100% committed to it.
"A narrative has developed that we’re somehow moving away from focusing on the metaverse vision, so I just want to say upfront that that’s not accurate. We’ve been focusing on both AI and the metaverse for years now, and we will continue to focus on both," Zuckerberg said." "We had a good quarter and our community continues to grow. Our AI work is driving good results across our apps and business. We're also becoming more efficient so we can build better products faster and put ourselves in a stronger position to deliver our long term vision," he added.
Meta to Expert More Losses From their Metaverse Project
Meta has announced in their new earnings report that it would be expecting more losses from its Metaverse project from 2023 and many other years ahead. The venture has already recorded a US$3.99 billion operating loss in the first quarter of this year.
Compared to the first quarter of last year, Meta has a lower amount of losses. This only shows the loss from their Metaverse project has only gotten worse. With a US$2.96 billion loss in the same quarter last year, the losses are only expanding. In 2022 alone, the Reality Labs department had already lost over US$13.72 billion.
Although the company is still generating revenue, the amount of losses that come in is quite overwhelming. Many expect Mark Zuckerberg and his team to back down from the undertaking. But he remains committed.
"We anticipate our full-year 2023 total expenses will be in the range of $86-90 billion, updated from our prior outlook provided in March. This outlook includes $3-5 billion of restructuring costs related to facilities consolidation charges and severance and other personnel costs. We continue to expect Reality Labs operating losses to increase year-over-year in 2023," Meta said.