A social media platform from former President Donald Trump was launched with a ton of hype and saw strong downloads initially. A new report shows interest could be waning, which could impact a SPAC.
What Happened: Downloads of Truth Social have dropped by 93% since the first week the app was available, according to a report from The Wrap.
The drop comes after the app saw some technology issues and what can be described as a shaky launch that had numerous people on the waiting list unable to get into the app.
Initial downloads were around 800,000 in the first week according to the report and have now dropped to around 60,000 a week on the iOS store from Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL).
“This is down 93% from its launch week, when it saw 872,000 installs during the week of Feb. 21,” Sensor Tower Strategist Stephanie Chan said. “We estimate that Truth Social has so far reached approximately 1.2 million installs since its launch.”
Truth Social is not currently available to users of Android, the platform owned by Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL).
The website devoted to Truth Social also saw a drop in visits from six million the week of its launch to less than two million in recent weeks, The Wrap said citing data from Similarweb.
Related Link: 7 Key Takeaways From The Donald Trump SPAC Deal
Why It’s Important: Truth Social is part of Trump Media & Technology Group, which announced a SPAC merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:DWAC) in 2021. The news of the SPAC merger was well received by the market with shares of the SPAC going as high as $175 and turning into one of the best IPO performers in 2021.
Truth Social was said to be a competitor to social media platforms such as Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and Facebook, a unit of Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB).
Trump himself was banned by both of these platforms and expected to be among the biggest catalysts for people to sign up for Truth Social.
Rumble, which prides itself as a neutral video platform that takes on social media platforms which censor people, is also going public via SPAC merger. Rumble will go public with CF Acquisition Corp VI (NASDAQ:CFVI).
Rumble has catered to several politicians and conservative voices banned elsewhere including Trump, who has been airing videos of some of his rallies on the platform.
According to the report, Trump has yet to post on Truth Social a month after the platform went live.
Trump recently shared news he hit a hole-in-one while golfing with Ernie Els. The news was shared on Twitter with a press release from spokesperson Liz Harrington, who also shared videos of Trump walking to the hole.
Instead of posting the news on Truth Social, people had to read it on Twitter, a platform that has banned Trump's account.
DWAC Price Action per Benzinga Pro: Digital World Acquisition shares are down 1.86% to $68.54 on Wednesday afternoon.
