cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/13470219
Trump Is in Line for a $3.5 Billion Windfall From Stake in Truth Social
If the SPAC is approved this week, he could potentially use the stock as collateral to get a bond and avoid having properties seized or declaring bankruptcy by next week’s deadline.
That values Truth Social at $6 billion. Reddit’s IPO valued it at $6.4 billion.
Even if $6B is what is implied by whatever is happening, you need a buyer who is willing to pay Trump that valuation 6 months after the acquisition. Just no way it can stand up to that valuation, it does not have the users for it. 2 million active users to Reddits 500 million.
Not to mention…who wants to buy it? I mean, the selling point there is basically Trump, for Trump fans, right? So if Trump exits, what’s the appeal?
I mean, nobody’s going to Reddit because they want to read spez’s comments. If spez leaves, it’s not a big deal. But I don’t think that Truth Social is in that position.
googles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_Social
It looks like it’s basically a custom Mastodon frontend:
Truth Social is modeled heavily after Twitter; users are able to make posts (“Truths”, similar to tweets) and share other users’ posts (“ReTruths”, similar to retweets).[62] The Truth Social platform uses a custom version of the free and open-source social network hosting software Mastodon as its backend, which omits several features, including polls and post visibility options.[12]
The platform uses the Soapbox frontend instead of Mastodon’s native frontend.[63] TMTG has advertised for developers with skills in using Elixir, the programming language used to build Pleroma.[64]
On October 21, 2021, the Software Freedom Conservancy group stated they suspected Truth Social had violated Mastodon’s AGPLv3 license by not offering its source code to all users.[65][66][67][68] The Mastodon developers then formally requested that Truth Social comply with the terms of the software license,[69] with Truth Social publishing its source code as a ZIP file on the website on November 12, 2021.[70][71] On February 22, 2022, the source code download was moved to the website’s legal section.[72] A mirror of the source code is available at GitHub, where it was uploaded by uninvolved individuals.[73]
The source is already available, too. So you’re really just buying the userbase.
I just can’t see it making a lot of sense for a buyer. It probably has a non-zero value, but I have a hard time believing that it’s worth all that much.
