Facebook Reality Labs lost $16.12 billion in 2023 on $1.896 billion of sales

Reality Labs continues to lose money as product development continues.

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While Facebook (META) reported beats on its revenue and EPS expectations for Q4 2023, the social media juggernaut continues to lose money on Facebook Reality Labs and doesn’t expect that trend to change going forward.

An image showing Facebook's (META) stock chart in after-hours trading for February 1, 2024

During the entirety of 2023, Facebook Reality Labs lost $16.12 billion on $1.896 billion in sales. During Q4 2023, Reality Labs lost $4.646 billion, an increase from the $3.742 billion the company lost on Reality Labs during Q3 2023. The company stated in its earnings report that it expects these losses to continue.

For more information on Facebook’s Q4 2023 earnings, stick right here with Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
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    February 1, 2024 1:35 PM

    Bill Lavoy posted a new article, Facebook Reality Labs lost $16.12 billion in 2023 on $1.896 billion of sales

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      February 1, 2024 1:41 PM

      That's a lot of money.

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      February 1, 2024 3:34 PM

      Why can’t Meta take 1 billion and make a Alyx level vr game every year?

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      February 1, 2024 4:53 PM

      Are they losing money on each headset sold or are they actually spending all those billions on R&D?

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        February 1, 2024 8:18 PM

        Paying Carmack his millions in long term incentive comp

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        February 2, 2024 6:06 AM

        Judging by the BOM cost, yes. Quest Pro likely makes a profit.

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        February 2, 2024 6:48 AM

        What's publicly known:

        - it's a TON of R&D, a lot into future devices (AR glasses)
        - RL has devices selling now (Quest, Ray Bans, etc) and doing quite well, but they're seen as entryways to the rest of the (more lucrative) ecosystem

        It's sorta disingenuous to look at the numbers for RL alone, but that's what analysts do every time there's earning calls.

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      February 1, 2024 8:36 PM

      Maybe i just don’t have the vision that other people do but it feels like VR is a terrible bet

      Maybe 10 years from now someone will dig this post up and be like “look how stupid he was lol” but idk

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        February 1, 2024 8:49 PM

        Ergonomics are a huge problem that aren't going to go away with better tech. A VR headset will always be uncomfortable to wear, especially for hours at a time in a warm environment.

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          February 1, 2024 10:04 PM

          [deleted]

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            February 1, 2024 10:10 PM

            We need contact lens screens like in movies

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              February 2, 2024 6:43 AM

              I'd rather just wear glasses. I don't want to lose a $2,000 pair of contact lenses because it fell out of my eye.

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          February 1, 2024 10:09 PM

          I think field of view is the bigger thing. They need some kind of screen that fully encapsulates your peripheral vision to really get it truly immersive

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        February 2, 2024 6:44 AM

        Reality Labs is AR and VR, presumably also including all their smart glasses research with AI too

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