Meta Records 16 Percent Uptick in 2023 Annual Revenue, Metaverse Unit Still Under Loss

Mark Zuckerberg, the chief of Meta (previously Facebook) recently disclosed revenue details about the company’s last quarter. Meta clocked a revenue of $40.1 billion (roughly Rs. 3,34,416 crore) between September and December. In total, the social media and Web3 mammoth managed to reel-in $134.9 billion (roughly Rs. 11,25,119 crore) in the year of 2023. On a yearly basis, Meta’s revenue has spiked by 16 percent. It is, however, interesting that Meta’s Reality Labs unit has only seen losses since 2021.

In an earnings report posted on March 4, Zuckerberg acknowledged having seen a good period revenue-wise. Despite his Reality Labs unit seeing losses, the tech mogul lauded the advancements this initiative has ushered in emerging advanced technologies.

“We had a good quarter as our community and business continue to grow. We’ve made a lot of progress on our vision for advancing AI and the metaverse,” the 39-year-old multi-billionaire said in his statement.

Zuckerberg solidified his commitment to explore the metaverse when he rebranded Facebook to Meta in 2021. At the time, a new unit was set up within the company called the Reality Labs. This special body was tasked with conducting research and development around metaverse and its use cases.

In the last three years, Reality Labs released metaverse and augmented reality (AR) hardware products like the Quest VR headset lineup to further the adoption of these technologies. As of March 2023, Meta has reportedly sold 20 million Quest headsets.

Despite its ongoing efforts however, Meta’s Reality Labs unit only met with losses when it comes to its revenues. Meta reportedly revealed in February that Reality Labs suffered a loss of $46.5 billion while generating nearly $11 billion (roughly Rs. 91,744 crore) in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Prior to that, Reality Labs had lost $13.7 billion (roughly Rs. 1,12,200 crore) in 2022.

Despite these financial consequences, Zuckerberg has kept his estimation about the upcoming metaverse boom intact. In May 2023, Meta had commissioned a study that claimed that the metaverse could contribute as much as $760 billion (roughly Rs. 62,36,088 crore) or about 2.4 percent to the US annual gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035.