Donald Trump’s social network, Truth Social, lost a whopping $58 million in 2023 as SEC filings on Monday showed that the app, made public last week, has lost momentum over the course of the year.
Trump Media said it generated just $751,000 in ad revenue in the fourth quarter, more than 25% less than the more than $1 million it generated in the last quarter. The documents imply that Truth’s ad earnings are Trump Media’s only earnings.
They revealed that most of Truth’s expenses are debt-related. The company sought a liquidity injection by going public last week, asking those with deep pockets to invest in the network governed by Trump’s daily, all-caps tirades. its valuation was estimated at more than $8 billion, of which Trump owns about $4. 6 billion.
Experts noted that an investment in Truth Social, which operates the leadership of its parent company Trump Media
In an SEC filing, TMTG issued warnings to potential investors. In particular, it lists the legal problems Trump is developing, adding the $500 million he will have to pay in a recent civil verdict.
He also pointed to his ongoing criminal cases, his track record of managing failing companies, and the fact that Trump could leave his own social network at any time, a move that could wipe out Truth Social entirely.
“The death, incarceration, or incapacity of President Trump, or the interruption or limitation of his relationship with TMTG, could have an adverse effect on TMTG’s business,” the company wrote.
Trump introduced Truth Social on Feb. 21, 2022, about a year after major social networks banned him from their platforms for his role in the alleged incitement of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Although Trump has promised to drastically reduce the user base of his competitors, it does not appear to have gained momentum as a primary social network. It’s possible that the change will take place temporarily for Truth to survive, with the company writing in SEC filings that it would want “millions” of users to sign up and “regularly use” the network in order to be successful.
Truth Social doesn’t disclose its user count, but SimilarWeb estimates it had around 1 million active users in February.
By comparison, Twitter, now X, generated about $5. 2 billion in the last year before Elon Musk’s takeover. Several media outlets have reported that X still has more than three hundred million active users.
Truth Social’s first day of public trading, Tuesday, appears to have been the busiest day of March. SimilarWeb estimated that it received 277,000 U. S. visitors on Tuesday, a cry from the 32 million U. S. visitors who logged on to Reddit on the same day. a competitor that recently went public and has a lower percentage value than TMTG.
In filings with the SEC, TMTG noted that its user base is almost entirely Republican, leading to 2022 polls on who would actually sign up and use the website. TMTG has hinted that there is a threat that those who use Truth Social will return to X if Trump does the same or ends up behind bars, admitting that its majority owner is “subject to court proceedings whose scope and scale are unprecedented for a former president of the United States. “
Trump failed to address the latest problems Monday morning.
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