Key Points:

  • Mark Zuckerberg is fervently chasing his dream to build a metaverse despite losing a significant amount of money in Q3 of 2022. 
  • Meta’s CEO was not at all amused during a call with analysts where he was explaining Meta’s long-term bets.
  • He admitted that the operating losses of Reality Labs, the facility where metaverse development is taking place will grow in 2023
  • He said that he and his team are confident that they will address every issue in the future. He also said that he appreciates the patience of those sticking around and that their patience will be rewarded. 

As far as building the metaverse is concerned, there is no looking back for the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg. He is sticking firm to his commitment to spending billions of dollars toward the development of the metaverse. Zuckerberg has reiterated his commitment despite the swelling investor concern regarding the financial health of Meta’s online advertising business. 

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Zuckerberg assures there is light at the end of the tunnel

Mark Zuckerberg was on a call with analysts as they discussed Meta’s third-quarter earnings report. Zuckerberg and a team of Meta executives answered a bunch of questions from analysts who are increasingly concerned about Meta’s expenses and rising costs. As Meta’s expenses have experienced a 19% year-on-year growth, their frustration seems to be justified. 

What do the financials say?

Meta’s shares fell by 19% after the company provided a lacklustre fourth-quarter forecast that fell short of analysts’ expectations. Facebook’s parent company, Meta saw a 4% year-over-year decline in revenue to $27.7 billion while recording a 52% year-over-year decline in revenues to $4.4 billion.

Reality Labs, Meta’s unit that handles the development of augmented reality and virtual reality technology that underpins the futuristic metaverse has experienced a $9.4 billion loss in 2022. Reality Lab’s revenues have declined by around 50% year-on-year to around $285 million. 

Meta, in a statement, has said that they expect Reality Lab’s operating losses to grow significantly in 2023. The statement said that beyond 2023; they expect to structure Reality Labs investments in such a way that they may eventually reach their long-term goal of increasing overall business operating income.

Zuckerberg hits back at critics

Meta has received considerable criticism from analysts who believe that there are too many experiential bets versus proven bets on the core. The group of analysts repeatedly questioned Meta on why they believe that experiential bets such as the metaverse will ultimately pay off. 

In his response, Zuckerberg said that there is a huge difference between something experiential and not knowing how good it is going to become, eventually. He further said that they are working on many applications and are positive that these applications would fare well. Zuckerberg said that although he cannot discuss the scale and how big they expect the metaverse to be, every step is in the right direction. 

Over the past couple of years, Meta has faced a series of roadblocks including a poor economy, the after-effects of Apple’s 2021 iOS privacy update, and increasing competition from companies including TikTok. Zuckerberg, firm on his stance has said that long-term investments in the metaverse will offer greater returns over time. 

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Feature Image Source: Photo by Anthony Quintano used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license