Elon Musk tweeted that Trump'sTruth Social was "beating"Twitter and TikTok on the app store.- Musk, who bought Twitter, posted a screenshot noting how Twitter was outranked.
Elon Musk, the newly-minted owner of Twitter, highlighted how
Musk posted a screenshot on Twitter on Tuesday, observing that "Truth Social is currently beating Twitter & TikTok on the Apple Store."
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 27, 2022
The App Store's rankings track downloads and install counts. At press time, Truth Social remained at the top spot on the App Store, while Twitter sat at second.
Truth Social was, however, only released in February, while Twitter launched its iPhone app more than a decade ago. Twitter has an estimated 217 million daily active users, and it was estimated in early April that Truth Social had far fewer, with its number of active users sitting at just over half a million.
While initially billed as a free-speech alternative to Twitter, Truth Social has seen its share of pain points too, from its slow launch, an opening day plagued with outages and long wait times, to the poor response to its release.
Trump himself has made only one post on Truth Social since its launch. The former President also struggled to remember the name of the platform during a rally in Ohio, calling it "Truth Central" instead.
And while Musk may be indirectly lauding Truth Social's progress, his moves in the market might be contributing to its decline. Shares of Digital World Acquisition, the special purpose acquisition company (or SPAC) that intends to merge with Trump's Truth Social, continued to plummet on Monday right after Musk bought Twitter.
Meanwhile, Musk now owns Twitter after the company's board accepted his buyout offer of $54.20 per share, or $44 billion, on Monday afternoon. Twitter has since signed an agreement with the billionaire that lays out rules for both sides, including a clause that dictates that Musk cannot insult Twitter.