The Bigger Truth: Facebook metaverse and Alphabet trillions

Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Steve Duplessie has some thoughts on the Facebook metaverse, Alphabet's $2 trillion valuation, the gig economy, hyper-converged infrastructure, and why you need to either jump on the bandwagon or get run over by it in this week's The Bigger Truth.

First, don't call it the Facebookverse! Its newly minted parent company, Meta, has big plans for the future of how work is done on the internet with the metaverse -- a virtual reality-focused collaboration platform. However, the same issues that have long plagued the social media giant -- mainly focused on privacy and data sharing -- remain.

Google parent company Alphabet recently hit $2 trillion in market value for the first time, joining both Apple and Microsoft in that vaunted and exclusive tier. But how big is too big? As Duplessie notes, $2 trillion rivals the GDP of all but the richest nations.

According to research from the University of Hertfordshire alongside BritainThink, 22.6% of the England and Wales workforce has worked in the gig economy at some point, up from 11.5% five years ago. Also called "platform work," the gig economy covers many jobs, including deliveries, cleaning, office work and software development. And of course, with the growth comes the grumblings.

"Gig economy platforms are using new technologies to carry out the age-old practice of worker exploitation," Trade Union Congress general secretary Frances O'Grady said, according to ComputerWeekly. "Too often, gig workers are denied their rights and are treated like disposable labour."

Finally, ESG released comprehensive online survey results of IT professionals focused on hyperconverged infrastructure, including benefits and challenges. Findings of note include 82% of organizations currently using HCI expect to increase spending on the platforms in the next year.

Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) is a division of TechTarget.