The FX168 Financial News Agency (Asia-Pacific) reported that the elected president of the usa, Donald Trump, and billionaire Elon Musk have a close political relationship, but from a business perspective, they are actually in competition. However, seasoned journalists forecast that Musk's Twitter (now renamed X) and Trump's Truth Social are expected to merge their businesses in the future.
Trump is the major shareholder of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of the emerging social media platform Truth Social. Musk owns Twitter, a dominant player in the social media field. Both are competing for users' time, advertisers' funds, and the dominance of cultural dialogue, but their growing technology assets have not hindered their political alliance.
(Source: Forbes)
Whether it is Twitter or the Truth Social platform, they both tout themselves as a paradise for free speech, allowing various forms of expression, including those considered politically incorrect.
Erik Nisbet, director of Northwestern University's Communication and Public Policy Center, stated, "Since Musk took over, Twitter's content has become closer to Truth Social, and his concept of free speech is more aligned with Truth Social."
Forbes reported that critical to this effort are the lax content moderation standards of both platforms - a feature, not a flaw.
Both Truth Social and Twitter vigorously promote themselves as "free speech" platforms catering to conservative audiences, however, their levels of content moderation differ.
Despite Twitter relaxing its guidelines, there remains strict content moderation, primarily because it relies on blue-chip advertisers and media partners to generate platform revenue. The company reported in September that, in the first half of this year, Twitter suspended approximately 5.3 million accounts for violating various content moderation policies.
However, Truth Social has virtually no advertising business, so it is not constrained by customer demand.
Nisbet stated that Truth Social is an 'alternative technology' site, referring to a platform that intentionally claims to conduct limited content moderation.
There is also a significant difference in the scale of the two platforms; Twitter is a global brand with users spread across the world, while Truth Social is a regional company in the usa primarily serving Trump's most fervent supporters, meaning its number of users is only a small fraction of Twitter's.
According to Similarweb, in September, Truth Social had 0.698 million monthly active users for its mobile app, while Twitter had 70.4 million. The difference in overall online traffic is even more pronounced. According to the same source, in September, Twitter had 1 billion visits on desktop and mobile devices, while Truth Social had only 11.3 million.
Truth Social and Twitter play significant roles in the media choices of their audiences, serving as places where they regularly obtain news.
According to the Pew Research Center, 57% of Truth Social users 'regularly' get news from the platform. Pew Research found that on Twitter, this number is slightly higher, with 59% of users reporting the same.
The emergence of Truth Social aligns with a broader trend in the social media industry, which has seen a surge of new platforms. This space was once dominated by Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, but is now crowded with smaller niche players like Mastodon, BlueSky, Telegram, and Discord, as well as new entrants from tech giants—Meta's Threads and ByteDance's TikTok.
Nisbet said that there is now more of a "niche social media ecosystem."
The close relationship between Trump and Musk, as well as the similarities in their businesses, led the Financial Times and senior technology journalist and CNN contributor Kara Swisher to speculate that Truth Social and Twitter might merge in the future.
(Source:CNN)
Nisbet pointed out that if such a trade were to go through, "it would be commercially meaningful for Trump but not for Twitter."
Due to the small number of users and almost zero revenue, Truth Social seems to have little impact on Twitter's overall business. As of the third quarter, Truth Social's revenue was $2.6 million. Although Twitter has struggled since Musk acquired the platform in October 2022, its advertising revenue is estimated to still be as high as $2 billion, far exceeding that of Truth Social.
Strangely, earlier this year, Truth Social's valuation was higher than Twitter's, at a time when its share price and market cap skyrocketed.
Given that Trump's stake is valued at about $3.3 billion, any possible trade might still bring him unexpected wealth. "For Trump, cashing out his equity is a smart exit strategy," Nisbet said. "He needs someone to buy his shares."
Truth Social has a narrow audience range, which means that its content intersecting with the mainstream is still limited to posts from its most well-known users. "More people encounter Truth Social content through news media reports about Trump's latest remarks than visit the platform," Nisbet stated.