Meta (META, $97.94) shares continued their 2022 freefall, plunging 19% in extended trading on Wednesday after Facebook’s parent issued a weak forecast for the fourth quarter and came up well short of Wall Street’s expectations for earnings. Meta’s revenue declined 4% year over year to hit $27.7 billion. 

Meta Q4 revenue guidance came in between $30 billion and $32.5 billion while the Street was expecting $32.2 billion. While its earnings per share came in at $1.64 vs. the $1.89 expected. In addition, Meta’s operating margin, or the profits left after accounting for costs to run the business, sank to 20% from 36% a year earlier. Overall net income was down 52% to $4.4 billion in the third quarter.

The decline in income is mostly due to Meta’s huge investment in the metaverse. Reality Labs, Meta’s virtual reality division, lost $3.672 billion this quarter. The same thing happened in Q1 when CEO Mark Zuckerberg justified a $3 billion loss by saying that the 2030s will be “exciting.”