Truth Social, ex-President Trump’s widely touted social media site meant as an alternative to Twitter and similar platforms, is… not working out. New installations each week of the site’s app on iPhones have plummeted by some 93 percent since Truth Social first rolled out to the general public, going from about 872,000 installations during the week of February 21 to around 60,000 Apple installations per week now, according to preliminary numbers. Overall, some 1.2 million installations of the app have been recorded. Although specific numbers could significantly change as time goes on, it’s clear more than a month into the site’s public life that the expansive public interest in it that Trump would no doubt love to tout just isn’t there.
Data came from a tech industry source called Sensor Tower and was reported on by The Wrap. Traffic to Truth Social pages is also considerably lower than it was earlier in the Trump-run platform’s brief existence. As The Wrap explains it, “Truthsocial.com spiked to 6 million visits during the week of Feb. 20 but has dropped to around 1.9 million weekly visits in recent weeks, according to Similarweb. The app store download page visits also declined from 361,000 visits during launch week to some 90,000 weekly visits last week.” As of now, interested individuals can’t actually use Truth Social outside of the app for Apple iPhones — besides links to resources including a help center and legal documents, the desktop site simply points visitors to the page to download the app for iPhones, assuming they possess one. It’s not yet available for those who use Android devices.
There have been serious issues with the site’s roll-out. Individuals downloading it have been plopped onto a stunningly lengthy wait-list, and once on the site — as of early last week, Trump hadn’t even posted since the site’s official launch to the public! Instead, Trump’s rambling remarks have percolated out to unfortunate members of the public through press releases shared by his spokesperson, Liz Harrington, along with speeches and interviews. David Carr, who serves as senior insights manager at Similarweb, told The Wrap:
‘Creating your own social network is not an easy thing to do… You have to be significantly better and more interesting… [The initial interest in Truth Social] did mirror the pattern we have seen before when Trump tried a couple of other things, [showing a] spike in interest and then going away quickly.’
And it would probably help if the person ostensibly behind the app actually used it. “It turned out there wasn’t much for them to do there,” Carr observed, discussing the point when users could actually get on the site. Notably, the business operation behind this venture was already placed under investigation by federal financial authorities. That investigation was revealed by Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), which announced plans back in October to merge with the Trump Media & Technology Group, which is Trump’s company, and the specific agencies who put this whole endeavor under scrutiny include the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Concerns have been raised about the endeavor over the fact that those behind it appear to have been conducting deliberations over the merger plans without notifying federal officials, and federal financial authorities went after information including communications between DWAC and the company named after Trump.
Donald Trump still hasn't posted on Truth Social since it officially launched on February 21st. pic.twitter.com/9oODKWLHRa
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) March 21, 2022
