Remember the metaverse? It was that new thing that Mark Zuckerberg has been evangelizing for years, even saying at Meta Connect this year that it will be the next frontier of social interactions. “Pretty soon, I think we’re going to be at a point where you’re going to be there physically with some of your friends, and others will be there digitally as avatars or holograms, and they’ll feel just as present as everyone else,” he said in September at the company’s annual showcase event. But it has lost money so far—a lot.
The progress toward making the metaverse a reality hasn’t been without growing pains, to say the least. Meta’s Reality Labs division, which houses its efforts to break into the metaverse, has lost around $46.5 billion since 2019, the company revealed in its latest earnings report.
The losses over that time are big enough to be a Fortune 100 company. That $46.5 billion figure is more than the entire revenue for Best Buy, which ranks 94 on the Fortune 100. Meta has lost more money investing in the metaverse than the total revenue for mammoth companies like pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb and United Airlines.
That hasn’t hurt Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth, though. With much of his fortune tied to Meta stock, his net worth has shot up 130% year to date as the stock has gained 136.8% this year. His net worth has risen $59 billion since the start of the year to $105 billion, making him the world’s 10th-richest person.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mark-zuckerberg-46-5-billion-174955420.html