Meta’s Reality Labs dealt a heavy financial blow in Q3, with losses surpassing an astonishing $3.7 billion! Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious plan for creating the metaverse has clearly come at no small cost – but it seems like the Meta CEO is confident these investments will eventually turn around large profits.
It’s a year since Mark Zuckerberg made the bold move to take Facebook into a digital world. And with billions of dollars invested and his business restructured around Web3, it’s clear that he is serious about making Meta not only relevant but essential within our rapidly changing global economy.
In that time the Facebook, or Meta (META) stock price has fallen more than 60%. This isn’t down to the switch towards the Metaverse of course, but it will be interesting to see how it fairs with inflation soaring and investors keeping an eye on costs.
Mark Zuckerberg Remains Bullish on The Metaverse
Some investors have argued that Meta should reign in the purse strings on its metaverse projects, but Zuckerberg insists such a move would be a ‘mistake’.
‘A lot of people might disagree with this investment,’ said Zuckerberg. ‘But from what I can tell, I think that this is going to be a very important thing, and I think it would be a mistake for us to not focus on any of these areas, which I think are going to be fundamentally important to the future.’
The Meta CEO also admitted that he expected to see losses will grow in 2023, though he remains hopeful the investment will pay off.
‘We do anticipate that Reality Labs operating losses in 2023 will grow significantly year-over-year. Beyond 2023, we expect to pace Reality Labs investments such that we can achieve our goal of growing overall company operating income in the long run.’
Facebook and Instagram Continue to Grow
While Meta might be eating money, the company’s 2 main applications Facebook and Instagram continue to grow.
Facebook remains one of the world’s most popular social media networks, with almost two billion daily active users and nearly three billion monthly. Even more impressive is the 50% growth in plays on their Reels on both Facebook and Instagram in just six months.
And Meta’s WhatsApp has grown exponentially since 2014. Back then the text messaging app had around 430 million users, whereas in 2022 there are over 2 billion users.
This shows the appetite for their Web2 applications is just as strong, and as Meta’s Metaverse rolls out you can be sure Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp will transition onto it.
Conclusion
With Reality Labs hemorrhaging money for Meta, many investors are starting to wonder whether it was a wise move for Zuck to go all in on the Metaverse.
But prices have tumbled in all tech stocks, so the fault can’t be solely put on Meta’s Web3 investment. He created Facebook, and with it one of the world’s biggest brands, so it would take a brave man to bet against Mark Zuckerberg in the long run.
