The year has been complicated for Meta. In the third quarter, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram saw its net profit melt to 4.4 billion dollars while its title lost more than 12% on Wall Street in October. Affected by the economic crisis, Meta also eliminated 11,000 jobs at the beginning of November, in a large-scale social plan. Not to mention that the group is again in the sights of the European Commission for violation of competition rules. Losses linked in part to activities in the metaverse, since Meta gathered 20% of its investments in Reality Labs there.
According to Presse Citron, in the third quarter, the development of the metaverse and its products cost $3.7 billion. At the start of the year, investments came to just under ten billion dollars while revenues amounted to only… 285 million euros. But the investments will continue, as explained on his blog the head of the division, Andrew Bosworth. “Mixed reality is a key part of the journey to augmented reality devices,” he explains. Meta therefore benefits from his “vision of the future” and especially of “long term”, which is why the 20% investment in Reality Labs is normal, according to him.
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A rebound in 2023?
If the investments are important, despite the little revenue, it is because the results will be slow to obtain: “Our vision of true AR glasses will require years of progress to make our devices thinner, lighter, faster and more powerful while consuming less battery and generating less heat,” says Andrew Bosworth. So why abandon these projects because of the unfavorable economic context? “Over time, it is clear that mixed reality allows virtual reality devices to become more convincing alternatives to laptops or desktops,” he explains.
Meta is certain, the situation will improve in 2023. “Meta is far from the only company to push the limits and we expect to have new competitors to join us”, confides the director of Reality Labs. Next year should see the commercialization of Meta Quest 2. “The virtual reality hardware and software that we have released are only the tip of the iceberg and the best days are still ahead of us”, promises Andrew Bosworth.
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