Foreign media: Trump's social platform Truth Social and Musk's X platform may merge

Trump's social media platform Truth Social may merge with Musk's X platform (formerly known as Twitter). Data shows that Truth Social's Q3 revenue this year was only $2.6 million, with 698,000 monthly active users on mobile and 11.3 million website visits per month. In contrast, X platform is expected to have annual advertising revenue of $2 billion, with 70.4 million monthly active users and 1 billion website visits per month.

Erik Nisbet, director of the Center for Communication and Public Policy at Northwestern University, said that since Musk took over, the content style of X platform has gradually become more similar to Truth Social. Both platforms are marketed with "free speech" as their selling point and mainly target conservative audiences. Data shows that 57% of Truth Social users use it as a daily news source, while X platform is at 59%.

Industry insiders believe that the potential merger is more commercially significant for Trump and could serve as his exit strategy for cashing out, as his current stake is worth about $3.3 billion.