Investing $10 billion in the metaverse is more than five times the amount of money Facebook paid to purchase the Oculus VR business in 2014 and 10 times what it paid to buy Instagram in 2012.
The spending dragged down Meta’s quarterly profits, which fell 8 percent, to $10.3 billion, in the three months ending in December from a year earlier, even as revenue rose 20 percent, to $33.7 billion, over the same period.
Meta said it expected its financial performance to be hurt by Apple’s changes to its mobile operating system, in which the iPhone maker made it more difficult last year for apps to track iPhone users’ digital habits.
The results were highly unusual for a company that for years has churned out stellar financial performances like clockwork, powering through scandals about privacy and misinformation and other toxic content.
In a call with investors after disclosing Meta’s results, Mr. Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, appeared to acknowledge the difficulties.
But he also defended the shift toward the metaverse and said his company had weathered challenges before.
For years, Meta has tried to become less dependent on Apple, which holds the key to iPhone users, and to shift away from social networking controversies involving misinformation and hate speech.
Last month, when Microsoft said it was buying the video game maker Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion, the software maker cited the deal as a building block for the metaverse, even though Activision does not produce virtual reality games.
While Reels is the biggest contributor to Instagram’s growth, it does not make as much money from ads as other Instagram products like Stories and the main photo feed.
In the call, Mr. Zuckerberg also pointed to the difficulties of competing with TikTok, which has grown increasingly popular with younger audiences.
The monthly active users of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other apps increased 9 percent, to 3.59 billion, in the quarter from a year earlier, the company said.
The plan caps months of fierce political debate.
The legislation published on Wednesday is an attempt to find a compromise between several countries: those that back the use of nuclear power, led by France; gas-dependent Eastern European nations; and countries, including Germany and Luxembourg, that oppose the proliferation of nuclear power stations.
National governments would need to guarantee safe disposal of radioactive waste, and nuclear plants must undergo regular safety updates, with newly built plants labeled sustainable only until 2045.
31, provoked a broad wave of criticism from some member nations, experts and lawmakers, who said the consultation period was too brief and denounced the timing of the release during a holiday period.
“The taxonomy was supposed create a steady flow of green investments,” said Henry Eviston from the World Wide Fund for Nature, which was part of the advisory group.
The regulation is not expected to be blocked by a sufficient number of national governments — under the bloc’s rules, at least 15 of the 27 member states, representing at least 65 percent of the E.U.
The eurozone started 2022 much as it ended the previous year, with record-setting inflation that defied expectations.
In Germany, drivers are faced with the latest record price for a liter of gas, at 1.712 euros, the equivalent of $7.31 per gallon, the A.D.A.C.
Economists expect the high prices will dominate discussion when European Central Bank policymakers meet on Thursday.
Many energy analysts predict that oil could soon touch $100 a barrel, even as electric cars become more popular and the coronavirus pandemic persists.
Western oil companies, partly under pressure from investors and environmental activists, are drilling fewer wells than they did before the pandemic to restrain the increase in supply.
On the demand side, much of the world is learning to cope with the pandemic and people are eager to shop and make other trips.
A potential Russian invasion of Ukraine has “the oil market on edge,” said Ben Cahill, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Americans would not be directly hurt in a significant way if Russian exports stopped, because the country sends only about 700,000 barrels a day to the United States.
But any interruption of Russian shipments that transit through Ukraine, or the sabotage of other pipelines in northern Europe, would cripple much of the continent and distort the global energy supply chain.
But the reserves would not be nearly enough if Russian oil supplies were interrupted for months or years.
Western oil companies that have pledged not to produce too much oil are likely to change their approach if Russia was unable or unwilling to supply as much oil as it did.
President Biden has been urging the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to pump more oil, but several members have been falling short of their monthly production quotas, and some may not have the capacity to quickly increase output.
In addition, if Russian supplies are suddenly reduced, Washington is likely to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to raise production independently of the cartel.
And energy costs tend to represent a larger percentage of their incomes, so price increases hit them harder than more affluent people or city dwellers who have access to trains and buses.
But the direct economic impact on the nation would be more modest than in previous decades because the United States produces more and imports less oil since drilling in shale fields exploded around 2010 because of hydraulic fracturing.
The pandemic is far from over, and China has shut down several cities to stop the spread of the virus, slowing its economy and demand for energy.
One of the main financial incentives for buying electric cars, for example, is that electricity tends to be cheaper per mile than gasoline.
Oil prices rose after the meeting, settling near $90 a barrel for Brent crude, the international standard.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, known as OPEC Plus, have kept tight control of production during the pandemic as demand has slowly grown.
At this point, Saudi Arabia, still the key decision maker in OPEC Plus, appears to see no reason to depart from this cautious plan.
The Saudis may also worry that Iran, a potential source of significant additional supplies, may start putting more oil on the market this year.
The de facto leader of OPEC may change its calculations if “conventional war breaks out on European soil and crude prices soar past the $100-a-barrel mark,” wrote Helima Croft, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, an investment bank.
Analysts say markets may well heat up further in the coming weeks, especially if conflict over Ukraine threatens to disrupt energy flows.
As the halfway point of corporate earnings season approaches, jittery investors are looking to these financial reports for direction.
Earnings for S&P 500 companies are on track for a fourth consecutive quarter of growth above 20 percent, according to FactSet.
Its shares are up 10 percent in premarket trading, a move worth nearly $200 billion in market value.
Exxon Mobil earned $8.9 billion in the fourth quarter, propelled by higher energy prices, in a sharp reversal from its $20 billion loss a year ago.
General Motors reported a sharp drop in fourth-quarter profit, but a 55 percent jump in annual earnings for 2021, to a record $10 billion.
The shipping giant raised its dividend by nearly 50 percent, its biggest increase since going public, and said it would hit revenue and margin targets a year earlier than expected.
With great fanfare, Facebook announced a plan in 2019 to create an alternative financial system based on a cryptocurrency that it had been developing in secret.
Silvergate was going to be the association’s stablecoin issuer, but now it has taken over the project and hopes to put a token out this year.
Stablecoins have exploded in popularity, becoming one of the fastest growing areas in digital currencies and underpinning much trading activity.
Mr. Lane believes that Silvergate can achieve this, making stablecoins part of everyday transactions, because it already operates as a regulated bank and because it can leverage relationships with other Diem partners.
Grindr’s services continue to function in China, although in the past China’s government has taken steps to block services that do not follow its rules.
In 2018 the social network, which is aimed at gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, faced widespread criticism for sharing users’ H.I.V.
Recent laws in China designed to protect consumer data have made things even more difficult for foreign firms, which must seek state permission to transmit data outside the country.
Grindr moved to pull the app last week because of difficulties complying with the new regulations, said a company official who declined to be named.
The rebound has come in part as big companies, including Microsoft, Apple and, most recently, Alphabet, have reported strong results.
On Wednesday, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, rose about 7.5 percent a day after the company reported that its profit grew 36 percent, to $20.64 billion, in the last three months of 2021.
For the last three months of last year, the company’s profit soared 31 percent, to $816 million, Starbucks said in reporting its quarterly earnings on Tuesday.
In the final three months of 2021, before the Athletic acquisition, The Times added 375,000 digital subscriptions, the company said in its quarterly earnings report.
By the last week of December, The Times had almost 8.8 million subscriptions.
The subscriber metric, which will be included in The Times’s next earnings report, reflects the company’s desire to market a bundle of several digital subscriptions as a one-stop shop not only for news but for other diversions and needs.
The Times established its earlier goal, 10 million subscriptions by 2025, three years ago, when it had 4.3 million.
Then, last month, The Times said it would buy The Athletic, whose 400 journalists cover more than 200 sports teams in the United States and Europe, in an all-cash deal worth $550 million.
For the fourth quarter of 2021, the company reported adjusted operating profit of $109.3 million, a 12 percent increase from a year earlier, and revenue of $594.2 million, a 16.7 percent rise.
While subscription revenue grew 13.9 percent, to $1.4 billion, the year also represented a rebound for advertising, where revenue grew to $497.5 million, a 26.8 percent increase from 2020, though still 6.2 percent less than it brought in before the pandemic, in 2019.
The company said it expected subscription revenue to increase 11 to 15 percent in the current quarter, which includes two months with The Athletic as part of the company.
The company’s board of directors raised the dividend 2 cents per share, to 9 cents, and authorized a $150 million stock repurchase, the company said.
Monitoring can take place in person or remotely, in high-paying jobs and low-wage ones, and can come in many forms: scores, dashboards, mandatory screenshots, time trackers or requirements to be filmed or recorded.