Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg presents the Orion AR Glasses during a keynote speech during the annual Meta Connect event on September 25, 2024 at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters

Despite of meta Following the successful unveiling of its Orion prototype AR glasses in September, the social media giant is still losing billions of dollars a quarter while building the nascent Metaverse.

Meta reported third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, in which it said its Reality Labs unit, which develops augmented and virtual reality technologies, posted an operating loss of $4.4 billion. Analysts polled by StreetAccount had expected the unit to post an operating loss of $4.68 billion.

Reality Labs’ revenue rose 29% year-over-year to $270 million in the third quarter, missing analysts’ expectations of $310.4 million. Reality Labs makes money primarily by selling Meta’s Quest VR headset and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

Meta first entered the VR market in 2014 when it was still called Facebook and. bought VR startup Oculus for $2 billion.

Facebook co-founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes that advances in VR and AR technology could position the company to become a leader in what could become the next big personal computing platform.

Investments have been expensive for Meta. After the company’s Wednesday earnings report, Reality Labs has posted an operating loss of more than $58 billion through 2020.

All that spending culminated in Zuckerberg demonstrating the Orion device at the company’s annual Connect conference in September.

Orion has generated enthusiasm and helped build enthusiasm within Meta about Zuckerberg’s ambitious plans. Meta hopes to capitalize on the unexpected success of its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which it develops with eyewear company EssilorLuxottica, and prepare consumers for future Orion AR glasses next year with the device. sues developers for making apps for, CNBC reported.

Also in September, Meta released its latest VR headset, the Quest 3S, pitching it as a more affordable way for consumers to experience VR at a starting price of $299. Last year, Meta released the more powerful Quest 3 VR headset, which has a starting price of $499.

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