Stefan Mileschin

Not sure how long this is going to last

In its first-quarter earnings report Meta said its virtual reality and augmented reality unit, Reality Labs, recorded a $3.99 billion operating loss. The unit generated $339 million in revenue.

Rather than showing an even slight uptick in interest in Mark Zuckerberg's virtual reality vision, the numbers show a slowdown from last quarter, when Reality Labs lost $4.28 billion on $727 million of revenue.

For all of last year, Reality Labs recorded an operating loss of $13.72 billion on $2.16 billion in sales, underscoring how VR and AR technologies have yet to reach the mainstream.

Despite Reality Labs' operating loss, Meta posted first-quarter net earnings of $5.71 billion, or $2.20 a share, with revenue up less than three per cent to $28.65 billion from $27.91 billion a year ago. This sent its stock soaring more than 10 per cent in extended trading Wednesday.

"Facebook had 2.04 billion daily active users, up five per cent from a year ago, and the 'family' of Meta apps -- which includes Instagram -- reported daily active users of 3.02 billion, up four per cent," adds MarketWatch.

However, it is unclear how long Meta can keep the virtual reality idea going. It is clearly not ready for the great unwashed yet and is proving to be a money pit. What is amusing for those of us sitting on the sidelines is that the Fruity Cargo Cult Apple is about to make the same mistake with its VR specs.

https://fudzilla.com/news/56794-meta...rse-black-hole