But the start of the app turned out to be more and more of a flop: Technical problems and low user numbers caused ridicule on the internet. Just under 1.5 million users had registered by the beginning of this week. Many of them are still on the waiting list, waiting to be activated.
Devin Nunes, CEO of truth social parent Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), announced that the platform would be “fully operational” by the end of March. However, the platform is still a long way from that. According to a Reuters report, two important top managers left the company on Monday.
There is already a lot of ridicule on Twitter: Pictures of technically upgraded carrier pigeons are doing the rounds, as is Trump with a children’s magic board on which he shares his messages.
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According to media reports, the ex-president is said to be very angry that there are so few users on the platform. In the App Store, Truth Social entices with the slogan “Follow the Truth”. Like-minded people should also be able to freely express their opinions here.
Only iPhone customers can use Truth Social
So far, however, Trump himself has only posted one truth – a “truth”: “Be ready! Your favorite president will see you soon!” he wrote more than six weeks ago. Since then he has remained silent. Apparently, the ex-president is waiting for a larger audience before commenting on the platform again. The same goes for other big names from the Trump camp.
— Wisecracker (@Wile_E_Cathy) April 2, 2022
“It’s been a disaster,” said Joshua Tucker, director of the Center for Social Media and Politics at New York University, about the launch of Trump’s intelligence service. This is also due to technical problems.
And it starts with the registration: Unlike Twitter, Truth Social only allows you to register on a mobile device. In addition, the app is only available for iPhones to this day. This means that 46 percent of Americans with Android smartphones do not have access to the app.
With Josh Adams as chief technology officer and Billy Boozer for product development, Trump had actually managed to attract two experienced tech entrepreneurs, which was not easy in the left-leaning industry. Adams in particular was considered by observers to be the brains behind Truth Social. But Adams and Boozer are now leaving the company, according to Reuters.
Financing and IPO unclear
Another question is how Trump Media & Technology Group intends to fund the growth of its new social network. Building such a platform is expensive, especially at the beginning, as the example of Twitter has shown: The news service lost a total of two billion dollars in the first ten years after its founding, before later becoming a profitable company thanks to advertising.
On the one hand, an IPO via the merger with the already listed investment vehicle Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) is therefore planned. But the SEC is investigating this planned deal, and the outcome of these investigations could take months. On the other hand, investors have promised a billion dollars. But these should only flow when the merger of DWAC and TMTG is official.
Truth Social’s troubles come at a time when another Twitter critic, Elon Musk, is taking a different tack: SEC documents revealed on Monday that Musk sold 9 .2 percent of shares secured by Twitter.
Musk uses Twitter almost as intensively as the US President used to. Unlike Trump, he has not been blocked by Twitter. But he is also one of the biggest critics of the online service because it removes certain entries or accounts. In late March, Musk wrote on Twitter that the service was the “de facto public marketplace” but did not uphold the “principles of free speech.” It “undermines democracy”.
Musk has therefore already played publicly – on Twitter – with the idea of building his own social network. However, that was before he secured nearly a tenth of Twitter’s stock — and with it direct access to the board for his grievances.
More: “Musk has big plans” – Tesla boss could fundamentally rebuild Twitter