海角大神

Some investors aren鈥檛 waiting to see if former President Donald Trump鈥檚 plans for a media company to challenge the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and even Disney can actually become reality 鈥� they鈥檙e all in.

Mr. Trump said Wednesday that he鈥檚 launching Trump Media & Technology Group and a 鈥淭ruth Social鈥� app as a rival to the Big Tech companies that have shut him out and denied him the megaphone that was paramount to his national rise. The announcement came nine months after Mr. Trump was expelled from social media for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Experts were split on how strong a competitor Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) can be, but the stock market reacted with exuberance.

TMTG鈥檚 plan is to become a publicly listed company through a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a type of company whose sole purpose is to acquire a private company and take it public. Shares of Digital World Acquisition quadrupled Thursday in what some might see as validation for Mr. Trump, even though there鈥檚 a ways to go before the merger is completed.

鈥淚鈥檓 personally not a Trump supporter, but this could lead to giant media presence,鈥� said investor Ryan Joshua Keenan, who put $2,000 into the stock early Thursday morning and had already tripled the money by the early afternoon. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been going up ridiculously.鈥�

Mr. Trump has spoken about launching his own social media site ever since he was barred from Twitter and Facebook. An earlier effort to launch a blog on his existing website was abandoned after the page drew dismal views.

鈥淲e live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced,鈥� he said in a statement Wednesday. 鈥淭his is unacceptable.鈥�

Conservative voices actually do well on traditional social media. On Wednesday, half of Facebook鈥檚 10 top performing link posts were from conservative media, commentators, or politicians, according to a daily list compiled by a New York Times technology columnist and an internet studies professor using Facebook鈥檚 own data.

TMTG has not set its sights low. In addition to the Truth Social app, which is expected to soft-launch next month with a nationwide rollout early next year, the company says it is planning a video-on-demand service dubbed TMTG+ that will feature entertainment programming, news, and podcasts.

One slide in a TMTG presentation on its website includes a graphic of its potential competitors, which range from Facebook and Twitter to Netflix and Disney+ to CNN. The same slide suggests that over the long term TMTG will also become a power in cloud computing and payments and suggests it will go head-to-head with Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Stripe.

A Trump-branded social media portal would join a crowded space dominated by Big Tech-run portals like Facebook and Twitter. Still, everyday social media users tend to be on multiple platforms at once, so TMTG鈥檚 offering doesn鈥檛 have to necessarily peel users from other portals to thrive.

鈥淭his network will most likely be most successful in targeting far-right users, the same that left Facebook for 鈥榓lternative鈥� social networks like Gab or Parler,鈥� said Alexandra Cirone, assistant professor in government at Cornell University.

Mr. Trump鈥檚 new media outlet could also compete for viewers on conservative networks such as OANN, Newsmax, and Fox News, she said.

Ali Mogharabi, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, who covers Twitter, Facebook, and other social media companies, said Mr. Trump鈥檚 brand could initially give TMTG a leg up relative to other new social media sites going up against Facebook and other big players.

鈥淲hether that鈥檚 going to be sustainable in the long run, that鈥檚 very uncertain.鈥�

Mr. Mogharabi said next year鈥檚 mid-term elections could be pivotal in whether the social media platform succeeds.

鈥淎 lot of Trump supporters would probably go on there. Even more so in 2024, if Trump actually decides to run for president. Those types of future events could actually attract more users.鈥�

For now, the deal is attracting stock traders. Shares of Digital World Acquisition soared $35.34, or 357%, to $45.50, and changed hands more than 475 million times. That compares with average trading volume of about 11 million shares for Twitter, which trade at around $65.

Digital World Acquisition, based in Miami, is a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Such publicly traded companies are designed to list the shares of a private company more quickly than a traditional initial public offering. In practice, that means the SPAC acquires a private firm and then changes its name and other details to those of the acquired firm.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been many, many months since there鈥檚 been a SPAC merger greeted with this amount of enthusiasm,鈥� said Jay Ritter, a professor at the University of Florida who specializes in initial public offerings.

The enthusiasm from investors came even though the SPAC deal was unusual in several ways. Announcements of such deals typically are accompanied by the actual merger agreement and a presentation to investors full of numbers and data.

In this one, the merger agreement was not there. And the 鈥淐ompany Overview鈥� of TMTG on its website is light on details about its structure and finances.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know enough to say it鈥檚 unprecedented, but it鈥檚 weird. Given a lot of things that happen with Trump are not great with details and formalities, it鈥檚 perhaps not surprising, but it鈥檚 not the norm in SPACs,鈥� said Michael Ohlrogge, an assistant professor of law at New York University who researches SPACs.

Until the deal is completed, TMTG would not have access to the cash raised by the SPAC. And without additional details from the companies, it鈥檚 unclear what Trump鈥檚 role will be and how much he鈥檒l be compensated.

The deal has an initial enterprise value, which measures total debts and assets, of $875 million, according to Wednesday鈥檚 announcement. Experts say it could take up to six months for the deal to close.

Digital World Acquisition is currently run by CEO Patrick Orlando, a Miami-based founder of the Benessere Investment Group.聽Mr. Orlando declined to comment about Mr. Trump鈥檚 potential role in the new company to The Associated Press on Thursday, pointing the public statements, which provide no detail.

This story was reported by The Associated Press.聽Alex Veiga reported from Los Angeles. AP reporters Bernard Condon and Stan Choe, and technology editor David Hamilton, contributed to this report.