The company lost more than 58 million last year. Former president Donald Trump's right-wing
Twitter clone Truth Social made a measly $4.1 million in revenue for all of 2023, according to new Securities Exchange Commission documents released today. That's despite having spent more than $58 million over the same period. The news appears to have hit the platform hard . Truth Social effectively went public under the ownership of the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which merged with blank-check company Digital World Acquisition Corp last week. As we drafted this story, we kept having to update just now much its stock had crashed: 9 percent, then 15 percent, then 18 percent, then 22 percent, then 24. Overall, shares are down almost 34 percent over the last five days, dipping to below $50 after rallying to over $66 following the merger. The crash, which was widely predicted by experts, highlights a massive discrepancy between Trump Media's considerable $7.5 billion valuation and Truth Social's inability to generate pretty much any kind of meaningful revenue, hence why TMTG shares are being referred to as " meme stocks ." Trump is expected to find a way to cash out and get around $3 billion richer thanks to the latest merger, but how, when — or even if — he'll able to do just that remains to be seen. The shares, for one, appear to be " grossly overvalued ," and could well continue sliding even further, greatly cutting into his payout. As Business Insider bluntly put it , TMTG "makes basically nothing," despite the company claiming it was working on adding "cutting-edge products and/or services" in the future, including providing a "'home' for canceled content creators." Historically, the anti-woke movement has struggled to squeeze profit out of conservatives and the alt-right. There were several other
Republican attempts to cash in on that fringe, including Peter Thiel-backed
YouTube alternative Rumble, which hasn't gotten anywhere near its original share price when it merged with a SPAC to go public in 2022. TMTG's rapidly declining shares and Truth Social's pitiful attempts to generate revenue are reminiscent of
Social Media darling Reddit's post-IPO woes. The platform went public via a far more traditional offering last month at a price of $34 a share. While the company rallied at first, almost reaching $70, prices started collapsing less than a week later and has rapidly been approaching its original IPO price, wiping out any initial gains. Just like TMTG, the company's market price has been described as " grossly overvalued ." But at least Reddit has some irons in the
fire and could conceivably find new ways to entice investors via glitzy AI initiatives and new schemes to monetize its existing user base. Truth Social, on the other hand, has little if anything going for it, undermining the viability of Trump's thinly veiled meme stock play. In other words, investors are likely to lose big on it. In a March 25 note , the day before the TMTG merger, an auditor blasted the company, warning that the company's "operating losses raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern." More on Reddit: Reddit's Stock Is Already Collapsing