The second quarter earning for Meta’s Reality Labs indicate the VR/AR development business has lost $21.3 billion since January 2022, with executives claiming it will worsen.
Recording $276 million is sales for Q2 this year, down from Q1’s $339 million, underscoring VR/AR’s infiltration to the mainstream.
Although losses were greater than expected, Susan Li (CFO) suggests the company will continuing investing in the technology.
“For Reality Labs, we expect operating losses to increase meaningfully year-over-year due to our ongoing product development efforts in augmented reality/virtual reality and investments to further scale our ecosystem.”
Last month, the Quest 3 was unveiled for US $499, with Mark Zuckerberg calling it “the first mainstream headset with high-res color mixed reality.”
Reality Labs has also logged operating losses, $3.7 billion for the last quarter, and Meta lost $3.99 billion in operating costs during Q1, for a total of $13.7 billion last year.
The latest report shows the company gained a quarterly revenue of $32 billion, up 11% from last year, boosting shares, up 6%, and the share price almost 9% higher.
The company are expecting revenue to remain the same for Q3, and are anticipating surpassing expectations on expenses.
“We anticipate our full-year 2023 total expenses will be in the range of $88-91 billion, increased from our prior range of $86-90 billion due to legal-related expenses recorded in the second quarter of 2023.”
