{"id":219287,"date":"2024-04-02T01:30:25","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T01:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/02\/trumps-social-media-platform-says-its-above-traditional-key-performance-indicators-its-auditor-has-substantial-doubt-it-can-continue-as-a-going-concern\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:19:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:19:31","slug":"trumps-social-media-platform-says-its-above-traditional-key-performance-indicators-its-auditor-has-substantial-doubt-it-can-continue-as-a-going-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/02\/trumps-social-media-platform-says-its-above-traditional-key-performance-indicators-its-auditor-has-substantial-doubt-it-can-continue-as-a-going-concern\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s social media platform says it\u2019s above \u2018traditional key performance indicators.\u2019 Its auditor has substantial doubt it can continue as a going concern"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GettyImages-2120568997-e1712019180256.jpg?w=2048\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Former President Donald Trump\u2019s social media company is not relying on traditional performance metrics\u2014and doesn\u2019t plan to anytime soon, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/ix?doc=\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1849635\/000114036124017011\/ef20025355_10k.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"sc-c908bf88-0 iyWINF\">a regulatory filing Monday <\/a>that also disclosed losses that sent the stock tumbling.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>While social media giants like Facebook parent Meta typically report numbers such as monthly active users to gauge how much engagement a platform is generating, Truth Social parent Trump Media &amp; Technology Group (TMTG) pointed out that since its inception, management hasn\u2019t used such data. Meanwhile, its auditor filed what is colloquially termed a \u201cgoing concern\u201d notice\u2014boilerplate language for companies with low revenues and high losses that there is a \u201csubstantial doubt whether it can continue operating\u201d in such fashion, in other words, it may not be a viable company.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For its part, regarding KPIs, the company said that those metrics \u201care not critical in the near future\u201d due to the early-stage development of the Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this juncture in its development, TMTG believes that adhering to traditional key performance indicators, such as signups, average revenue per user, ad impressions and pricing, or active user accounts including monthly and daily active users, could potentially divert its focus from strategic evaluation with respect to the progress and growth of its business,\u201d the company said in the filing. \u201cTMTG believes that focusing on these KPIs might not align with the best interests of TMTG or its shareholders, as it could lead to short-term decision-making at the expense of long-term innovation and value creation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, the filing did reveal that Truth Social has seen an aggregate of about 9 million sign-ups via iOS, Android and the web as of mid-February.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, SimilarWeb has estimated that Truth Social\u2019s monthly website visits in February were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/website\/truthsocial.com\/#traffic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"sc-c908bf88-0 iyWINF\">5 million worldwide<\/a>. By contrast, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/website\/reddit.com\/#traffic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"sc-c908bf88-0 iyWINF\">Reddit\u2019s were 2 billion<\/a> last month, according to SimilarWeb.<\/p>\n<p>Shares of Trump Media &amp; Technology Group sank 21.5% to close at $48.66 after an SEC filing showed the company lost $58.2 million last year on revenue of $4.13 million. The SPAC had gained meme stock status in the roughly week it was trading, soaring as high as $78 at one point, swelling Trump\u2019s net worth.<\/p>\n<p>Jay Ritter, a professor and expert on initial public offerings of stock at the University of Florida\u2019s Warrington College of Business, said it\u2019s a perfectly viable business strategy not to worry about short-term profitability as a company builds market share. But here, it appears that all the metrics that the company can think of aren\u2019t going in the right direction. \u201cThe company is saying, \u2018we want to be dynamic and robust\u2019 because none of these traditional metrics are really working in [their] favor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re not fessing up and saying, \u2018our business model is failing,\u2019\u201d added Ritter.<\/p>\n<p>Still, there has been more than one company that started with one business model, pivoted when it didn\u2019t work and later became profitable. While that could happen in this case, the question is how profitable, he said. \u201cThe valuation changes by the billion from day to day,\u201d said Ritter.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2024\/03\/26\/trump-social-media-rises-trading-gains-fall-expert\/?utm_source=search&amp;utm_medium=suggested_search&amp;utm_campaign=search_link_clicks\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"sc-c908bf88-0 iyWINF\">Ritter suggested <\/a>the stock price might fall 95% from its first-day trading price of $57.99. That would be the upside potential, he said today.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>TMTG, with Truth Social, \u201caspires to build a media and technology powerhouse to rival the liberal media consortium and promote free expression,\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/ix?doc=\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1849635\/000114036124016719\/ef20025342_8k.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"sc-c908bf88-0 iyWINF\"> the company wrote in disclosures.<\/a> It aims to compete with X, Netflix, Alphabet, Amazon and other companies that TMTG believes \u201ccollude to curtail debate in America and censor voices that contradict their woke ideology.\u201d The company merged with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a blank check company formed in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Among other disclosures made today, Digital World Acquisition Corp.\u2019s public accounting firm Adeptus Partners <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/ix?doc=\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1849635\/000114036124016719\/ef20025342_8k.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"sc-c908bf88-0 iyWINF\">wrote that it is uncertain<\/a> the company could continue as a going concern and that the merger could be executed on time. If it isn\u2019t, \u201cthere will be a mandatory liquidation and subsequent dissolution of the company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty,\u201d the accounting firm\u2019s report states.<\/p>\n<p>These types of statements in reports aren\u2019t uncommon among companies with no revenue, such as biotech firms, noted Ritter. That\u2019s basically an accountant saying that things can\u2019t continue on for long with low revenues and current losses, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-cy=\"subscriptionPlea\">Subscribe to the new Fortune CEO Weekly Europe newsletter to get corner office insights on the biggest business stories in Europe. <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/newsletters\/ceo-weekly-europe?&amp;itm_source=fortune&amp;itm_medium=article_tout&amp;itm_campaign=ceo_weekly_europe\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"sc-c908bf88-0 iyWINF\">Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2024\/04\/01\/trumps-social-media-key-performance-indicators\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Former President Donald Trump\u2019s social media company is not relying on traditional performance metrics\u2014and doesn\u2019t plan to anytime soon, according to a regulatory filing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332018,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219287\/revisions\/332018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}