When Facebook changed its name to Meta in September 2021, it was clear that CEO Mark Zuckerberg was determined to transition from the Web2 social media sector to the metaverse. Now, three years later, let’s examine how financially committed the company is and the impact of its expansion into virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) on Meta’s profits before the first quarter earnings call on April 24.
What’s Happening at Meta?
Meta reported a revenue of $134.90 billion in 2023, which is approximately a 16% increase compared to 2022. The company’s fourth-quarter revenue of $40.1 billion broke a company record and exceeded analysts’ predictions. Although this seems to indicate that the shift towards the metaverse is yielding good results for the company, there are mixed signals that need to be interpreted before the next meeting.
While the social media application Facebook is performing quite well, Meta’s Reality Labs, the research division responsible for products like the Quest VR headset series, has reported a total operational loss of about $40 billion since 2021.
Essentially, the company’s revenue comes solely from its suite of social media and messaging applications, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
Noteworthy Details of the Process
According to a report by UploadVR, Meta has sold about 20 million Quest headsets since March 2019. For comparison, Apple sold approximately 151 million iPhones in just 2023, while Sony sold about 50 million PlayStation five consoles since 2020 as of December 2023.
In the case of Meta, the figures related to Reality Labs do not seem to surprise investors and shareholders. As The Motley Fool recently pointed out, while Meta has been pouring money into Reality Labs for metaverse research and development, it has also been buying back its own shares at an accelerating pace.
The company has repurchased $92 billion worth of its own shares since 2021 and reported to have a fund of $31 billion available for buybacks at the end of 2023, with an additional $50 billion set aside for more buybacks in February.
