Truth Social struggles to grow its U.S. user base, new data on Trump Media app shows

Nearly
two-and-a-half
years
after
its
launch,
Truth
Social
is
struggling
to
hang
onto
its
small
U.S.
user
base,
according
to
new
data
on
the
microblogging
platform
launched
by
former
President

Donald
Trump‘s
media
company.

So
far
in
May,
U.S.
daily
visits
to
Truth
Social
have
dropped
more
than
21%
from
April,
and
more
than
35%
compared
to
March,
according
to
digital
intelligence
platform
Similarweb.

The
site’s
average
number
of
monthly
visits
over
the
past
year
—
just
over
4
million
from
May
2023
to
April
2024
—
plummeted
more
than
39%
from
the
prior
12-month
period,
from
May
2022
to
April
2023,
Similarweb
reported.

The
traffic
has
declined
even
as
Trump
—
the
most
prominent
Truth
Social
user
and
the
majority
shareholder
of
its
parent
company,


Trump
Media
—
has
saturated
the
national
news
with
coverage
of
his
criminal
trial
and
White
House
bid.

And
while
the
app
saw
a
surge
in
visitors
in
the
lead-up
to
Trump
Media’s
public
trading
debut
in
March,
Similarweb’s
most
recent
data
show
that
those
gains
have
already
been
erased.

The
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
does
not
track

key
indicators
that
social
media
platforms
traditionally
use
to
monitor
their
performance.
Those
include
metrics
like
a
site’s
active
user
accounts
and
its
daily
and
monthly
visitor
numbers,
as
well
as
its
revenue
per
user
and
ad
impressions.

Trump Media
says
it
believes
tracking
those
stats
“might
not
align
with
the
best
interests”
of
the
company
or
its
stockholders,
according
to
its

most
recent
filing
with
the
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission.

The
company
also
said
it
“may
never
collect,
monitor,
or
report
any
or
certain
key
operating
metrics.”

CNBC
reached
out
to
Trump
Media
for
comment
on
the
firms’
findings,
and
asked
if
it
could
provide
any
data
of
its
own.

“Why
would
we
comment
on
a
fake
news
network
reporting
on
fake
analyses?”
the
company
said
through
a
spokesperson.

But the
new
analyses
could
be
warning
signs
for Trump Media,
whose
business
depends
in
large
part
on
growing
its
user
base.

“If
you
can’t
demonstrate
that
you
have
a
sizeable,
active,
engaged,
growing
audience,
I
don’t
understand
how
you
create
a
successful
ad-supported
social
media
business,”
said
David
Carr,
Similarweb’s
editor
of
insights,
news
and
research,
in
an
interview.

Trump Media relies
entirely
on
ad
sales for
its
revenue,
and
discloses
in
its SEC filings
that
a
decline
in
user
engagement
could
hurt
its
business by
making
Truth
Social
less
attractive
to
advertisers.

The
data
firms’
findings
could
also
harden
Wall
Street
analysts’
view
of
the
company
as
a
“meme
stock”
whose

sky-high
market
capitalization
is
untethered
to
its
business
fundamentals.

“We
basically
don’t
see
anything
in
these
digital
indicators
that
would
explain
why
the
valuation
is
as
high
as
it
is,”
Carr
said.

Trump
Media
on
Tuesday
reported
a
first-quarter

net
loss
of
nearly
$328
million
on
revenues
of
about
$771,000,
most
of
which
came
from
advertising.

Nonetheless,
as
of
Friday,
the
company
had
a
market
cap
of
slightly
more
than
$8
billion.

The
stock
closed
on
Friday
at
$45.81
per
share,
which
is
roughly
in
the
middle
of
the
wide
range
of
share
prices,
from

a
low
of
around
$22
per
share
to
a
high
of
around
$70,
that
TMTG
shares
have
traded
at
since
the
company
went
public
in
March.

Truth
Social’s
monthly
active
user
numbers
declined
significantly
in
the
U.S.
in
the
final
months
of
2023,
three
different
data
firms
told
CNBC.

But
the
platform’s
traffic
rebounded
in
the
first
quarter
of
this
year,
as
Trump
Media
closed
in
on
a
deal
allowing
it
to
start
trading
on
the
Nasdaq
under
the
ticker

DJT.

Similarweb
tallied
781,954
active
iOS
and
Android
users
on
Truth
Social
in
the
U.S.
that
month,
a
more
than
58%
surge
from
February.
GWS
Magnify
offered
an
even
rosier
analysis,
calculating
that
Truth
Social’s
monthly
user
numbers
hit
a
new
peak
of
1.4
million
in
March,
which
carried
over
into
April.

Data
firm
Sensor
Tower,
meanwhile,
calculated
that
the
social
media
platform’s
U.S.
monthly
active
user
level
in
the
first
quarter
of
2024
rose
10%
year
over
year.

But
all
three
analysts
linked
that
rise
to
the
heavy
press
coverage
surrounding
Trump
Media’s
public
merger
and
its
highly
volatile

trading
kickoff,
when
the
stock
rocketed
up
as
much
as
50%.

That

meme-fueled
frenzy
seems
unlikely
to
establish
a
long-term
gain
in
traffic:
In
the
four-week
period
ending
May
19,
for
instance,
daily
active
U.S.
Truth
Social
users
were
down
19.7%
year
over
year,
according
to
Similarweb.

Truth
Social
also
faces
two
major
obstacles
to
building
an
engaged
user
base,
according
to
GWS
Magnify.

The
first
is
a
retention
problem.
Truth
Social
users
on
average
check
the
site
fewer
than
two
days
a
week
—
falling
behind
apps
like
Facebook,
X,
TikTok,
Reddit
and
Pinterest.

Truth
Social
users
also
clock
fewer
minutes
of
engagement
on
the
platform
that
do
the
users
of
other
social
media
networks.
The
vast
majority
of
Truth
Social
users,
87%,
also
use
Facebook.
Another
51%
are
also
on
X,
GWS
Magnify
reported.

“Compared
to
other
social
media
platforms,
Truth
Social
users
are
accessing
the
app
much
less
frequently
and
are
spending
much
less
time
on
it
per
session,”
the
firm’s
CEO,
Dr.
Paul
Carter,
told
CNBC
in
an
email.

“That
will
have
a
bigger
impact
on
the
prospects
for
Truth
than
any
media
limelight,”
Carter
said.

He
added
that
a
future
decline
in
Truth
Social’s
numbers
“will
be
because
the
platform
has
failed
to
engage
users
in
the
way
that
the
most
successful
social
media
companies
–
TikTok
most
prominently
–
have
mastered.”

The
second
problem
is
that
Truth
Social
doesn’t
offer
anything
to
set
it
apart
from
bigger
microblogging
sites,
especially
X,
which
it
closely
resembles.

Trump
Media
says
it
is
focused
on
adding
new
features
to
Truth
Social,
including
live
TV
streaming,
according
to
its
latest
earnings
report.

For
now,
the
most
unique
feature
of
Truth
Social
is
Trump
himself,
who
uses
the
app
regularly
and
occasionally
makes
news
in
his
posts.

Yet
Trump’s
presence
on
Truth
Social
alone
has
not
been
enough
to
draw
users
away
from
its
competitors,
nor
has
the
wall-to-wall
national
press
coverage
of
Trump’s
criminal
trial
and
his
campaign
to
defeat
President

Joe
Biden.

“It
just
hasn’t
happened,”
Carr
said.

—

NBC
News’
Rob
Wile
and
CNBC’s
Gabriel
Cortes
contributed
to
this
report.