Meta is trying to improve and streamline its business in the Web3 and wearable markets. The company has reportedly split its Reality Labs team into two separate entities where one team will work on the metaverse-focused Quest headset and the other will devote its time to hardware wearables that Meta may launch in the future. According to a report that recently surfaced online, Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth announced this segregation in the Reality Labs team earlier this week.
What is Reality Labs and what are Meta’s plans for it?
After Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta in 2021, he formally formed the Reality Labs unit in 2022. This division brought together multiple initiatives already being worked on within the company such as artificial intelligence, virtual headsets, as well as CTRL Labs among others. Later, Meta’s Reality Labs unit also became the focal point of the company’s metaverse technology research.
According to a report by The Verge, Bosworth relayed details of the internal restructuring at Meta via memo. The website also announced that layoffs were announced for some team members. The exact number of those liquidated remains unknown for now – but the report claims that it is a relatively small group.
Going forward, all of Meta’s initiatives related to metaverse technology will reportedly be led by the newly separated Metaverse division. The Quest VR headset, its operating system called Horizon OS, as well as Meta’s social VR platform Horizon Worlds will be overseen by the Metaverse unit, according to the report. Horizon head Vishal Shah will reportedly now also monitor developments around the Quest headset.
In 2022, Meta refreshed its Quest headset lineup with the ‘Meta Quest Pro’, which is priced at a starting price of $999 (roughly Rs. 83,520). In 2023, Meta introduced the Meta Quest 3 priced at $499.99 (Rs. 41,800 approximately). By March 2023, Meta has reportedly sold 20 million Quest headphones.
Meanwhile, the company has yet to publicly address the reported development.
Meta’s Metaverse journey so far
Zuckerberg announced his big plans to enter the metaverse industry when he rebranded Facebook as Meta on October 8, 2021. With Web3 technologies coming under scrutiny around the world for their links to volatile and risky digital assets, the growth of these technologies has been gradual.
Meta’s Reality Labs unit has consistently reported losses since the rebranding. Reality Labs lost $13.7 billion (roughly Rs. 1,12,200 crore) in 2022, while it incurred a loss of $46.5 billion while generating nearly $11 billion (roughly Rs. 91,744 crore) in revenue in the fourth quarter in 2023.
In May 2023, Meta commissioned a study that claimed the metaverse could contribute as much as $760 billion (roughly Rs. 62,36,088 crore) or about 2.4 percent of the US’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035. Zuckerberg predicts that his initiatives the metaverse may experience more losses in the coming times, but he continues to diligently research their use cases.
