A new report from Yahoo Finance details the supposedly worrying state of Meta's Reality Labs division.
The division, which focuses on VR and AR, has reportedly led to losses on several occasions due to multiple restructurings and "top leadership" knowledge of the actual technology.
It's been more than a decade since Meta (formerly Facebook) acquired VR developer Oculus for $2 billion. Current and former Meta employees say things have shifted dramatically after founder Mark ·Zuckerberg became obsessed with virtual reality during the pandemic, leading to a "rather chaotic" work culture.
According to the source, there is a management change every 3 to 6 months, and Meta leaders from outside the department come to the department businessmen to try to spur the department into shape. A former engineering executive described it as "plugging leadership into any position with a forklift."
Another source said, "They're just playing employee bingo, and they're letting people who don't really understand AR run the AR department." It's hardware and experience, not just a handheld news stream. ”
According to a third source, this unease is exacerbated by "serious suspicions" about the leadership, unrealistic expectations and the abrupt cancellation of the project.
There are many reasons for the dilemma of the VR/AR sector. Part of the reason is the lack of mainstream attention for technology: the company is reported to spend $18 billion in 2023, while United States sales are reported to be only $1 billion.
In addition to product pricing issues, Zuckerberg's obsession with the concept of the "metaverse" has also led to losses for the division. According to a second executive in the department, Reality Labs' budget was based solely on Zuckerberg's excitement about the new idea, and the team began to "try to figure out the prototype of the product over and over again" after the budget was determined.
His obsession with mixed reality technology has made Reality Labs very unpopular internally, with analyst Dan Ives calling it a "spending blue-eyed injury (a very obvious injury)" for the company, and he doesn't think the department will pay off for the next 10 years.