Facebook’s parent company is under increasing pressure to focus less on the metaverse, as investors warn it’s an experimental gamble causing “giant and scary losses”.

The tech giant changed its name to Meta last year under plans to build a virtual world that would be used by millions of people.

But Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse has been plagued by glitches, with user numbers well below targets set by executives.

The latest figures show that Reality Labs, the division that builds the metaverse, lost £3.16bn between July and September, compared to £2.27bn in the same period a year earlier.

Investors were quick to dump Meta shares after the company warned that metaverse-linked losses will “grow significantly” next year.

When asked why…