Meta sinks 20 percent as Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse pitch falls flat

The investors rushed to dump Meta platform's Inc's stock after hours, pushing it down 20% and wiping $67 billion off its market value after the company posted its fourth straight decline in quarterly profit.

The Facebook-parent said its overall expenses could rise as much as 16% next year and anticipates that operating losses at Reality Labs  the unit responsible for bringing the metaverse to life will grow significantly next year.

In the July-September quarter, losses at Reality Labs ballooned to a whopping $3.67 billion from $2.63 billion a year earlier. Revenue nearly halved.

"It would be a mistake for us to not focus on any of these areas that will be fundamentally important to our future," Zuckerberg said on the call.

"I know that sometimes when we ship a product people say: 'Hey, you're spending all this money, and you've produced this thing,' and I think that's not really the right way to think about it."