糖心视频

As more social media startups are founded and funded, at least one high-profile politician is looking to join the game: former President .

The Trump-founded social network Truth Social launched on the App Store Monday, jumping to the top of the 鈥渕ost downloaded鈥� list.聽

Truth Social was founded after Trump was kicked off mainstream social media platforms including and after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Digital World Acquisition Corp, a special-purpose acquisition company that鈥檚 expected to merge with , saw its share price spike on Monday after Truth Social鈥檚 release as well. Despite the popularity, Truth Social鈥檚 rollout was reportedly bogged down by app glitches and long waitlists, .

While Trump鈥檚 social platform isn鈥檛 venture-backed, it鈥檚 among a growing number of social media companies to form in recent years. Twitter and Facebook are still the dominant players, but startups like and have gained steam and shifted audiences toward audio and video social experiences. And companies like and have appealed to more conservative circles because of their more-lax content moderation policies.

VC-backed companies in the social media space raised nearly $5.7 billion in funding last year, more than double the roughly $2.5 billion they raised in 2020, per Crunchbase data. Some of the largest rounds last year went to companies based in India, including $570 million Series F, and $502 million Series E.

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