Facebook is planning to spend at least $10 billion this year on its Facebook Reality Labs, which is primarily focusing on AR and VR content such as software and hardware products. Facebook shared some details in its third-quarter earnings, revealing that it’ll spend a massive amount, and it’s betting big on VR.
“We expect our investment in Facebook Reality Labs to reduce our overall operating profit in 2021 by approximately $10 billion. We are committed to bringing this long-term vision to life and we expect to increase our investments for the next several years.” said Facebook in its third-quarter earnings release.
The Facebook Reality Labs that is responsible for both the Oculus Quest and Portal devices is the main powerhouse that will be focusing on developing the metaverse that Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, wants to be the “next big thing.” Today, the company mentioned that it’ll start reporting earnings from the Reality Labs segment. It’s a clear sign that the Labs division has to be judged separately by investors, and has to be its own entity (via TheVerge).
In other news, the company keeps attacking Apple and iOS for making the privacy changes that disabled companies such as Facebook to track its users, and show personalized advertisements to them. It’s clear that the company is seeing some drops in its revenue, and it’s seeing some impact on its profits.
Facebook is having a rough few weeks and months, and there are some rumors floating around that Facebook – the parent company – may want to change its name to something else. It’s not clear when this may happen, but rumors claimed that the changes will go live anytime this week or potentially sometime in November.
What are your thoughts on Facebook investing that much in the AR/VR future? Do you currently use a VR headset? Let us know in the comments!
