Truth Social to join Rumble's advertising platform (updated)

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23/08/2022 15:29

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    By Helen Coster
    Aug 23 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump's
social media platform, Truth Social, will join the video-sharing
company Rumble's new ad platform as its first publisher, the
companies said on Tuesday.
    The announcement reflects a deepening relationship between
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), Truth Social's parent
company, and Rumble, a Canadian video-sharing platform that
caters to conservatives. 
    Rumble had already been working with TMTG for months in a
role that was described internally as a key strategic
partnership but not clearly defined to staffers, according to
two people with knowledge of TMTG operations.
    The two sides had already struck a "technology and cloud
services” deal in December that would include video and
streaming for Truth Social. 
    Truth Social restored Trump's presence on social media more
than a year after he was banned from Twitter Inc  TWTR.N , 
Facebook  FB.O  and Alphabet Inc's  GOOGL.O  YouTube following
the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riots, after he was accused of
posting messages inciting violence. 
    It launched in the Apple App Store on Feb. 21 and has yet to
become available in the Google Play Store for Android users. 
    Advertising is key to TMTG's business. In a May 27 filing
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Digital World
Acquisition Corp  DWACU.O , the blank-check firm taking TMTG
public, said that TMTG "may rely on the sale of advertising
services for the substantial majority of TMTG’s revenue."
    Both Rumble and TMTG are positioning themselves as
alternatives to Big Tech firms such as Google and Facebook. 
    In its Aug. 23 announcement of its new ad platform, Rumble
described it as competition to Google's AdSense and Ad Exchange
advertising programs.  
    As of Aug. 23 Trump had 3.89 million followers on Truth
Social, compared to the more than 88 million he had on Twitter
when he was banned. 

 (Reporting by Helen Coster in New York and Akash Sriram in
Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Deepa Babington)
 ((helen.coster@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @hcoster))