Meta had one of its best quarters since it changed its name from Facebook. The company managed to report 11 percent year-over-year revenue growth, which comes as a sigh of relief for investors, because this time last year, Mark Zuckerberg's company posted its first-ever quarterly revenue decline. Meta stock price reflects that as the stock took a nose dive through 2022; it is now climbing back up again, trading around $298 per share after markets closed today.

Part of why Meta is raking in more cash is that it has downsized more than 20,000 employees, so personnel costs are much lower. Although this correction for overhiring has terrible implications for those who lost their jobs, investors appear to be smiling in return. Meta describes the downsizing as "The Year of Efficiency," which is a considerably less grating way to say "mass layoffs" on an earnings call.

The revenue growth isn't because of lower costs alone, however. Zuckerberg said that Reels have hit 200 billion daily plays across Instagram and Facebook, and its monetization revenue run rate is now over $10 billion, up from $3 billion in the fall. And though Meta hasn't yet begun to monetize Threads yet, the new competitor to Twitter- or are we saying X now?- is off to a solid start, according to Zuckerberg.

Though much is going right at Meta, the company's Reality Labs continues to struggle. Reality Labs, which encompasses Meta's VR and AR products, lost $3.7 billion in this quarter alone. For all of 2022, Reality Labs lost Meta $13.7 billion. According to the Q2 2023 earnings report, the company still expects those losses to get worse for Reality Labs. This is according to Meta CFO Susan Li. Still, the public at large doesn't seem much interested in what Meta describes as a metaverse. Apple entered the AR/VR ring itself this quarter, launching its $3,499 Vision Pro AR headset. This long-awaited product is a little out of the price range for most consumers, but Meta is readying itself for fall, when it will be competing with Apple and releasing its Quest 3 headset. The Quest 3, the firm's mixed-reality headset, will cost $499. That's not loose change, but it's a hell of a lot more affordable than $3,499.

In fact, Reality Labs spent so much, and reality remains relatively underwhelming to date, that investors are now actually questioning Zuckerberg's optimism.

"We're here to create amazing experiences that connect people," he said. "I believe helping define the next platform is going to unlock that in a profound way for decades to come."

It's a déjà vu of early last year, when he unapologetically told investors that although Reality Labs is hemorrhaging cash, the 2030s are going to be thrilling.

"I cannot promise you that I am going to be right on this, but I do think this is the direction the world is in," Zuckerberg said.