Since October, Facebook has renamed the company name, expressed an image on the internet where people can digitally connect through essential reality avatars or teleport to see places like ancient Rome, and helped trigger the Metaverse investment craze.
Now Meta platforms reports fourth quarter results on Wednesday investors will get a new window into the financial impact of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s current passion.
Meta plans to break out the results of its amplified and virtual reality hardware unit, reality labs, for the first time an investment the agency formerly warned would cause a $10 billion hit to 2021 profit and would not be cost-effective any time in the near future.
The agency is hiring engineers and buying up multiple virtual reality gaming studios to build toward the Metaverse, which is a broad innovative idea of shared virtual realms that can be accessed by different devices and which Mark Zuckerberg is betting will be the successor to the mobile internet.
Read More: What is Metaverse? Some implications of this virtual world
Analysts said they would be keen to see indicators about the reality labs division productivity how long it might be a drag on the marketing side, and proof around the strength of VR headset sales.
It is going to be vast for me as an analyst not having to surgically excavate through Facebook earnings and just see a lens into the reality labs.
Meta has said it expects non-advertising revenue to be down year over year in the fourth quarter as it compares unflatteringly with the strong launch of its VR quest 2 headsets during the previous year’s holiday shopping season.
Meta is expected to report of $33.38 billion, according to walls street estimates up to 18.9% year over year, and is expected to post periodical earnings per share of $3.84 a slender turn down.
