Meta’s profitability fell within the fourth quarter, worrying buyers who pushed the corporate’s shares down by greater than 20% in after-hours buying and selling on Wednesday.

Meta, the mother or father firm of Fb, Instagram and WhatsApp, recorded $10.3 billion in internet earnings throughout the newest quarter or $3.67 per share, a 5% decline from a yr in the past. The corporate had been anticipated to put up $3.84 per share.

Its income determine did beat projections, although. Meta’s gross sales reached $33.7 billion, greater than the $33.4 billion forecasted.

Because the title change displays, the corporate is making an attempt to shift from its cell and desktop social networks towards an idea known as the metaverse, a digital realm accessible via augmented and digital actuality. It’s a drastic pivot for the enterprise towards a nonetheless largely unproven idea, however one CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees as essential to securing new younger audiences who’ve deserted Fb. (Living proof: Fb registered no enhance in month-to-month customers throughout the fourth quarter, a uncommon slip in progress. The quantity stayed at 2.91 billion.) Meta’s current apps have been weighed down additional by final yr’s whistle-blower scandal that additional criticism in regards to the firm’s dealing with of misinformation and problematic content material.

However for the forseeable future, Meta will proceed to depend on its core promoting enterprise. Adverts accounted for the overwhelming majority of its fourth-quarter income, some $32.6 billion.

The brand new monetary filings made public Wednesday symbolize the primary time that Meta has detailed the efficiency—and prices—round its metaverse undertaking. That unit, which Meta calls Actuality Labs, had $877 million in gross sales throughout the fourth-quarter however misplaced $3.3 billion, an virtually 60% larger loss than within the yr prior. Actuality Labs’ income largely comes from gross sales of its VR headsets. For all of 2021, Actuality Labs misplaced $10.1 billion, a 50% enhance.

“Our path forward remains to be not completely outlined,” Zuckerberg mentioned on a name with analysts Wednesday night. “However I’m happy with the momentum and progess we’ve made to date.”

These numbers make it apparent that constructing a metaverse is an costly endeavor, and Meta has fierce competitors. Snap has additionally mentioned it’s pursuing an analogous plan, as has Microsoft, which final month introduced it might purchase online game maker Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion as a part of its metaverse targets.