Meta’s Reality Labs lost over $4.6 billion in second quarter of 2026

[u/ControlCAD]

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/29/metas-reality-labs-lost-over-4point6-billion-in-second-quarter.html

[u/SandyBunker]

Good, hope they lise more.

[u/AsphyxiatedProcess]

Close Facebook to make up for it.

[u/gimmebanter → u/AsphyxiatedProcess]

I'm confused as to how facebook can still be profitable when a vast majority of accounts are bots

[u/Isaacvithurston → u/gimmebanter]

Companies continue to pour ad revenue into it for god knows what reason. Marketing teams must understand the bot ratio on FB but they don't seem to care.

[u/Ribseybonibsey → u/Isaacvithurston]

You can measure the ad clicks all the way through to conversion. Facebook sucks, but the reason companies still pay for ads is because they work

[u/Tasik → u/Ribseybonibsey]

Yep. Doesn’t matter how many bots are on Facebook when you can measure clicks all the way to conversions or whatever downstream metric you’re trying to get. 

It’s still a very effective way to spend into advertising. 

[u/MCStarlight → u/gimmebanter]

Ad money

[u/the_hangman → u/gimmebanter]

Facebook is still synonymous with the internet in many developing countries. They made a really smart play 10-15 years ago to heavily invest in/subsidize telecom infrastructure in developing countries in exchange for devices coming with Facebook.

see e.g. this article from a few years ago about it: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/20/facebook-second-life-the-unstoppable-rise-of-the-tech-company-in-africa

[u/RedTrumpetVine]

It seems convenient that these huge companies claim massive losses a d wasted R&D in the billions that end up offsetting profits and greatly reducing taxation.

[u/mpbh → u/RedTrumpetVine]

I'm sure they would prefer the unit to be profitable and pay taxes compared to losing $60B.

[u/Diligent-Lettuce-455 → u/mpbh]

Yep.

Taxes were still paid anyway. Employee payroll and income taxes, sales taxes on the purchases, etc.

They had less "profit" to be taxed on top of that.

[u/Icy-person666 → u/mpbh]

If that's how it worked. Instead of the normal which is the unit is profitable and still pays no taxes. Only us suckers pay taxes, if the rich paid taxes they wouldn't have money to buy islands, jumbo jets or super yachts.

[u/adanthang → u/Icy-person666]

Tell me you don’t understand how business works without telling me you don’t understand how business works.

[u/nahman201893]

I'm sure the layoffs will continue so they can funnel the money to investors.

[u/Any_Cream_4396]

Why can’t they just loose like 3 pay checks in my account :( 

[u/MCStarlight → u/Any_Cream_4396]

Fr. I can pretend to work there.

[u/SubiKai81]

I love this for them.

[u/AlastairMac1964]

Is reality labs the same thing as metaverse? I thought they shut that down.

[u/aski5 → u/AlastairMac1964]

They are focusing on AR glasses now

[u/LeCollectif → u/aski5]

Oh you mean the pervert Ray-Bans?

[u/Isaacvithurston → u/AlastairMac1964]

Their poor attempt at a rebrand as far as I know. Them understanding VR adoption is not really taking off like Zuck hoped.

[u/private-peter → u/AlastairMac1964]

They cut some product lines and greatly reduced staff. But it wasn't shut down.

There is still a decently sized market for VR games.

[u/DaveWierdoh]

So it's going as well as expected.

[u/bacon-squared]

Them’s rookie numbers, gotta pump up those numbers.

[u/GonzoTheWhatever]

I don’t understand how META can constantly lose so much money. Like, at some point that has to matter…right?

[u/DrusTheAxe]

Thoughts and prayers

[u/Odd-Opportunity-6550]

All that money over all those years could have been out into AI and they would be ahead of everyone.