Formerly known as Facebook Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. has posted its first-quarter 2022 earnings yesterday. The company’s Metaverse-focused Reality Labs has posted increased losses.
Initially known as the Oculus division, the Reality Labs division has spent a lot of capital in developing virtual reality and metaverse-related products. However, it has posted a $2.9 billion loss for the first quarter of this year. Also, last year, the company posted a loss of $1.8 billion in the first quarter of last year.
But Reality Labs revenue came in above expectations. The company posted $695 million in revenue during the first quarter of this year. Most of this came from sales of virtual reality (VR) headsets and Meta Portal hardware.
During the earnings call yesterday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he expects losses from the division since it is largely focused on research and development. Also, Reality Labs is also focusing on a series of software and hardware products such as Project Cambria.
Zuckerberg said:
“I recognize it’s expensive to build this, it’s something that’s never been built before. And it’s a new paradigm for computing and social connection. We expect to be meaningfully better at monetization than others in the space, and we expect that should become a sustainable advantage for our platforms as they develop.”
Last year, Reality Labs posted an approximate loss of $10 billion throughout 2021. Out of this, $4 billion came from employee costs and research and development.
Overall, the company posted total revenue of $27.9 billion in the first quarter of this year.
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