Since changing its name to Meta in October last year, Facebook’s mother company has been actively engaging and producing projects that further pushes its venture into the metaverse; however, their second-quarter report showed their metaverse-specific division has suffered a $2.8 billion loss. This brings the division’s year-to-date losses to $5.77 billion.
According to Meta’s earnings report that was released Wednesday, July 27, Facebook Reality Labs (FRL), which focuses on the firm’s augmented and virtual reality operations, was able to generate $452 million in revenue for the second quarter; a 35% down from last quarter.
Despite the loss, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg still stands firm on his view with the metaverse. He noted that the company is more focused on its long-term metaverse and Reels growth than maximizing short-term revenue from monetization.
“The metaverse is a massive opportunity for a number of reasons.It enables deeper social experience where you feel a realistic sense of presence with other people no matter what you are doing.” –Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO
Further, although the company said it expected Reality Labs revenue to be lower in the third quarter compared to the second quarter, Zuckerberg continues to convince their shareholders to still support their web 3 projects.
“By helping to develop these platforms, we’re going to have the freedom to build these experiences the way that we and the overall industry believe will be best, rather than being limited by the constraints that competitors place on us. I feel even more strongly now that developing these platforms will unlock hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions, over time,” he explained.
Just this month, Meta officially began testing non-fungible token (NFT) integration on Facebook. Currently, the testing of Polygon and Ethereum-based NFTs has already started among a selected group of creators on Facebook, according to Navdeep Singh, Meta’s Product Manager. (Read more: Meta Launches NFT Display on Facebook)
On the other hand, its photo-sharing platform Instagram started allowing the display of NFTs in its application in May. (Read more: Instagram Testing NFTs This Week; Facebook To Begin Soon)
Moreover, Meta also announced their plans to release virtual coins, tokens, and lending services on its apps last April. (Read more: Meta Exploring Non-Blockchain-Based Virtual Currency)
While the metaverse projects of the company seem to slowly achieve success, Meta also suffered several failed attempts with their cryptocurrency platform Diem Payment Network. (Read more: Facebook’s DIEM Formerly Known as Libra Shuts Down Without Ever Launching)
On the other hand, Novi, Facebook’s digital wallet has successfully acquired a Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) license from the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in 2021. (Read more: PayMaya and Facebook Novi Philippines Receive Virtual Currency Exchange License from the BSP)
This article is published on BitPinas: Meta Q2 Report: Metaverse Division Loses $2.8 Billion
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