Mark Zuckerberg’s stubbornness opened a financial black hole in Meta!

Meta, the umbrella company of popular social channels such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2023. In the first quarter, the company earned $28.6 billion, increasing revenues unexpectedly by 3 percent. Net income fell 24 percent to $5.7 billion. However, our topic is what the metaverse unit Reality Labs lost, which is Mark Zuckerberg’s stubbornness.

The total loss of persistence reached $30 billion

Meta reported an operating loss of $3.99 billion this quarter for its Reality Labs unit, which deals with the virtual reality, augmented reality and metaverse businesses. Reality Labs has lost $30 billion to Meta since 2020. Clearly, Mark Zuckerberg’s obstinacy in the metaverse has created a financial “black hole” in Meta. The only consolation for Zuckerberg is that the current loss isn’t as bad as the $4.3 billion he lost in the previous quarter.

While Mark Zuckerberg believes in the metaverse dream, the numbers don’t lie. Yes, initially most companies lined up to invest in the metaverse, but most of these projects will close by 2025, according to analysts. On the other hand, current economic conditions have also affected users’ interest in the metaverse. Sales of VR headsets have dropped more than 12 percent over the past year.

But the biggest challenge facing the metaverse is the recent rise of productive AI. Companies are rushing to apply ChatGPT’s counterparts to their services. Even Meta is making serious investments in this field in order not to fall behind in the field of artificial intelligence. On the other hand, Zuckerberg’s faith in the metaverse remains unshaken. The famous billionaire firmly believes that the metaverse will reach billions or even trillions of dollars in size in the next ten years. Time will tell if this belief is true.