Nearly two and a half years after its launch, Truth Social is struggling to hang on to its small US user base, according to new data from the microblogging platform launched by the former president. Donald Trumpis a media company.
So far in May, US daily visits to Truth Social are down more than 21% from April and down more than 35% from March, according to digital intelligence platform Similarweb.
According to Similarweb, the site’s average monthly visits over the past year – just over 4 million from May 2023 to April 2024 – were up from the previous 12-month period from May 2022 to April 2023. decreased by more than 39% compared to the period.
Traffic has declined even as Trump — the most prominent user of Truth Social and the majority shareholder of its parent company. Trump Media – filled the national news with his criminal trial and appeal to the White House.
While the app saw a surge in visitors ahead of Trump Media’s publicly traded debut in March, the latest data from Similarweb shows those gains have now been erased.
User and engagement data from Similarweb and two other data firms, collected and analyzed exclusively for CNBC, offers a glimpse into how Trump Media’s flagship product is developing — one that the company itself has yet to provide.
The company claims it doesn’t track key indicators which they traditionally use to track their social media platform performance. These include metrics such as a site’s active user accounts and its daily and monthly visitor numbers, as well as revenue per user and ad impressions.
Trump Media says tracking these statistics “may not be in the best interests” of the company or its shareholders. latest application With the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company also “may never collect, track or report any or certain key operating metrics,” it said.
CNBC has reached out to Trump Media for comment on the firms’ findings and asked if it could provide its own data.
“Why would we comment on a fake news network reporting fake reviews?” This was announced by the company’s spokesperson.
But the new analysis could be a warning sign for Trump Media, whose business largely depends on growing its user base.
“If you can’t demonstrate that you have a large, active, engaging and growing audience, I don’t see how you can build a successful ad-supported social media business,” said David Carr, insights, news and research editor at Similarweb. , in an interview.
Trump Media is entirely based on ad sales for its revenue and disclosed in SEC filings that declining user engagement could hurt its business by making Truth Social less attractive to advertisers.
The data firms’ findings may also harden Wall Street analysts’ view of the company as a “meme fund.” high market capitalization not related to its business fundamentals.
“We don’t see anything in these numbers to explain why the valuation is so high,” Carr said.
Trump Media reported the first quarter on Tuesday a net loss of about $328 million generated approximately $771,000 in revenue, most of which came from advertising.
Nevertheless, the company’s market value on Friday was just over $8 billion.
The stock closed Friday at $45.81 a share, roughly in the middle of a wide range of stock prices. from a low of about $22 to about $70 a share, TMTG shares have been trading since the company went public in March.
A single ripple
According to three different data firms, Truth Social’s monthly active user count dropped significantly in the U.S. in the final months of 2023.
But the platform’s traffic picked up again in the first quarter of this year, as Trump Media struck a deal that allowed it to start trading on the Nasdaq. under the sign of DJT.
Similarweb had 781,954 active iOS and Android users on Truth Social in the US that month, an increase of more than 58% from February. GWS Magnify offered a more glowing analysis, calculating that Truth Social’s monthly user count reached a new peak of 1.4 million in March, which continued through April.
Meanwhile, data firm Sensor Tower estimated that the social media platform’s US monthly active user base grew 10% year over year in the first quarter of 2024.
But all three analysts attributed it to extensive press coverage of Trump Media’s public merger and its highly volatile nature. trade startwhen stocks rise up to 50%.
This meme-induced rage Long-term gains in traffic seem unlikely: For example, in the four-week period ending May 19, Truth Social’s daily active users in the US fell 19.7% year-over-year, according to Similarweb.
Winds of Truth Social
According to GWS Magnify, Truth Social also faces two major obstacles to building an engaged user base.
The first is the storage problem. Truth Social users check the site less than two days a week on average – lagging behind apps like Facebook, X, TikTok, Reddit and Pinterest.
Truth Social users have fewer minutes of engagement on the platform than users of other social media networks. The vast majority of Truth Social users, 87%, also use Facebook. Another 51% is in X, reports GWS Magnify.
“Compared to other social media platforms, Truth Social users log in less frequently and spend less time per session,” said the firm’s CEO, Dr. Paul Carter told CNBC in an email.
“It will have a far greater impact on the prospects of Truth than any media spotlight,” Carter said.
He added that the future decline in Truth Social’s numbers “will be due to the platform’s inability to attract users in the way that the most successful social media companies – most notably TikTok – have mastered.”
The second problem is that Truth Social doesn’t offer anything to set it apart from the larger microblogging sites, especially X, which it closely resembles.
Trump Media said it is focused on adding new features to Truth Social, including live TV streaming, according to its most recent earnings report.
But by far its most unique feature is Truth Social, which Trump himself uses regularly and occasionally posts news about.
But despite wall-to-wall national press coverage of Trump’s criminal trial and his campaign for president Joe BidenTrump’s presence on Truth Social alone was not enough to alienate users from his opponents.
“It just didn’t happen,” Carr said.