(BBC News) The share price of Donald Trump’s media company has fallen from last week’s high when it officially listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
But it is still worth more than $7 billion at current prices — an astonishing sum given the business behind it?
So what is the Truth Social platform, who owns it, how many users does it have, and how much money does it make? And is it the answer to Trump’s spiralling legal bills?
Trump Media & Technology Group was founded in 2021 after Trump lost the presidential election and was temporarily booted from major social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, which accused him of inciting violence.
The idea was pitched to him by two men, former contestants on his reality TV show, The Apprentice, who saw an opportunity to create an alternative to the mainstream social media sites.
In 2022, Trump Media launched its first — and to date only — product for the public: the social media platform Truth Social.
Much of Truth Social’s functionality is identical to X. Users are able to post ‘truths’ or ‘retruths’ as well as send direct messages. Advertisements, meanwhile, are called ‘sponsored truths’.
Trump Media claims about 9 million Truth Social accounts have been created since its start.
It does not disclose how many users it has, but research firm SimilarWeb estimates that Truth Social had 5 million monthly website visits in February this year.
By comparison, TikTok received more than 2 billion visits, while Facebook had more than 3 billion. X had 104 million visits in February, SimilarWeb reported.
Trump has roughly 7 million followers on Truth Social, far fewer than the 87 million he has on X. The former president’s X account was reinstated toward the end of 2022, but he has only posted once since.
Trump Media lost nearly $60 million in 2023, while bringing in only about $4 million in revenue from advertising, according to its latest financial update, which warned of “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a business.
The report was another reminder of the considerable disconnect between the finances of the company and its stock price.
As a gauge, in 2013, when Twitter listed on the stock market, it reported $660 million in revenue and had a market value of roughly $24 billion.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68716628
