Oct 26,2021:Facebook Inc said on Monday it will start breaking out the financials for its virtual and augmented reality unit, an announcement that comes as its main advertising businesses face “significant uncertainty.”
Facebook warned that Apple Inc’s new privacy rules would weigh on its digital business in the current quarter, after the social media company reported quarterly revenue below market expectations.
Chief Financial Officer David Wehner also said Facebook expected its investment in its hardware division, Facebook Reality Labs, to reduce overall operating profit in 2021 by approximately $10 billion.
The financial commitment by the world’s largest social media company to building the “metaverse” https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-sets-up-new-team-work-metaverse-2021-07-26 comes as the company is swamped by coverage of documents leaked by former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen which she said showed the company chose profit over user safety. Facebook has said Haugen mischaracterized its work.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has said Facebook in the coming years will be seen as metaverse company rather than a social media company, as it makes a number of investments to expand the technology.
The metaverse, a term first coined in a dystopian novel three decades earlier, has attracted much buzz across Silicon Valley. It refers broadly to a shared virtual environment which can be accessed by people using different devices.
Facebook, which has invested heavily in virtual reality (VR)and augmented reality (AR), including buying companies like Oculus, this year created a product team to work on the metaverse. This month, it said it plans to hire 10,000 employees in Europe over the next five years to work on this initiative.
