Meta Platforms broke out its revenue from Reality Labs for the first time ever today, revealing the segment of its business responsible for making VR headsets like Quest saw about as much revenue in 2021 as the reported amount it cost Facebook to purchase the Oculus startup in 2014.
Here are the key financials as reported by Meta in its first earnings report since rebranding from Facebook:
- Q1 2021 Reality Labs Revenue: $534 million
- Q2 2021 Reality Labs Revenue: $305 million
- Q3 2021 Reality Labs Revenue: $558 million
- Q4 2021 Reality Labs Revenue: $877 million
That totals almost $2.3 billion, roughly in the same ballpark as the $2-3 billion it reportedly cost Facebook to purchase the Oculus startup in 2014. Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg had warned investors that his investment in Quest and future AR/VR technologies would cost the company at least $10 billion annually as part of the effort to build out a new personal for computing platform, and the reported financial results seem to reinforce that with the loss from operations in the Reality Labs segment over the same period listed below:
- Q1 2021 Reality Labs Loss From Operations: $1.8 billion
- Q2 2021 Reality Labs Loss From Operations: $2.4 billion
- Q3 2021 Reality Labs Loss From Operations: $2.6 billion
- Q4 2021 Reality Labs Loss From Operations: $3.3 billion
That totals $10.2 billion in losses for 2021 from the Reality Labs effort. That means the $2.3 billion in revenue was obtained from $12.5 billion in costs and expenses,which includes research and development of future VR and AR technologies. Reality Labs revenue roughly doubled two years in a row, from $501 million in 2019 to $1.1 billion in 2020 and $2.3 billion in 2021.
Reality Labs revenue in the fourth quarter of the year was “driven by strong Quest 2 sales during the holiday season,” Meta Platforms CFO David Wehner said.
This news is breaking, updates to come.
