Rumble Could Work, But Don’t Sleep on the Competition Either

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CF Acquisition Corp VI (NASDAQ:CFVI) is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). CF Acquisition plans to merge with Rumble, which is a conservative-leaning social media platform focused on streaming video. CFVI stock hasn’t rocketed higher yet, but shares are trading above the $10 mark. That’s an accomplishment in the current dour environment for SPACs.

DWAC stock: An image of wooden blocks that say SPAC over a series of one dollar bills.
Source: Dmitry Demidovich/ShutterStock.com

So what does Rumble bring to the table? It’s a Canadian video platform that has gained prominence in recent years as a site willing to host videos by pundits that have been banned from other platforms. It labels itself as a neutral platform that opposes “cancel culture” and returns to the internet’s roots as a medium for unfettered free expression. In practice, Rumble as grown to be a leading alternative for video hosting among conservative politicians and activists.

At the time of the SPAC announcement, Rumble boasted fairly impressive user metrics. These include 44 million monthly active users and 8 billion minutes of content watched per month. The company is also starting to partner with influencers to generate more interest in the platform.

Rumble Enters The Right-Wing Social Media Arena

A fascinating angle of the Rumble story is that it isn’t the only conservative social media stock out there. In fact, Rumble is arguably playing second-fiddle to Digital World Acquisition (NASDAQ:DWAC) as a whole constellation of so-called Trump stocks has emerged.

Digital World, you may recall, announced late last year that it will be acquiring former President Trump’s media company. The flagship asset of said media company will be Truth Social. Truth Social intends to launch in Q1 of this year and offer users a “Big Tent” social media platform more open to conservative voices.

High-profile Republicans such as Trump himself have been banned from platforms such as Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Meta Platforms aka Facebook (NASDAQ:FB). This should create an opportunity for an ecosystem that hosts viewpoints that are currently out-of-favor on the mainstream websites.

However, it’s not entirely clear how these sites will compete or cooperate. There’s already Rumble, Telegram, Gab, and Truth Social among others targeting this niche. And, over the past few weeks, another rival, Gettr, has risen to prominence following celebrity podcaster Joe Rogan’s arrival on that platform. Against this backdrop, will Rumble be a leader or just another face in the crowd?

Rumble’s Value Proposition

On the cooperate or compete question, it’s important to differentiate the feature set of a company. Something like Rumble might work well as a complement to a Gab or Gettr type of product. That’s because Rumble’s focus is on streaming video; it serves primarily as a competitor to Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) YouTube platform.

Gettr, by contrast, looks more like a close imitation of Twitter. A site like Gettr’s core strength is unlikely to ever be video, so it might be easiest for it to simply encourage users to embed Rumble videos rather than building its own competing video product. In this way, the right-wing social media firms may not be direct competition in the way that they first appear to be.

To that end, Truth Social announced a partnership with Rumble in December. Rumble will provide some services — presumably video hosting among others — to the new social network. However, until Truth Social actually launches, it’s hard to say just how significant this alliance will be.

CFVI Stock Verdict

There’s a lot of buzz around alternative social media networks right now. This should give investors in Rumble a good shot at making some money in coming weeks and months. A lot of people have invested in the space out of political affinity and that sort of capital is likely to be fairly patient. People that like the product or the celebrities using these sites will probably hold their shares and thus provide a solid level of support for the stock price.

That said, there’s still a great deal of uncertainty around which right-wing media platform or platforms will end up winning a lion’s share of the audience. And, until proven otherwise, you have to think DWAC’s Truth Social has an edge given it has the biggest right-wing personality of all.

That could be good for CFVI stock if the partnership between Truth Social and Rumble ends up going places. However, until proven otherwise, Truth Social is the one that will likely generate the most investor attention.

On the date of publication, Ian Bezek held a long position in DWAC and FB stock. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Ian Bezek has written more than 1,000 articles for InvestorPlace.com and Seeking Alpha. He also worked as a Junior Analyst for Kerrisdale Capital, a sizable New York City-based hedge fund. You can reach him on Twitter at @irbezek.

Ian Bezek has written more than 1,000 articles for InvestorPlace.com and Seeking Alpha. He also worked as a Junior Analyst for Kerrisdale Capital, a $300 million New York City-based hedge fund. You can reach him on Twitter at @irbezek.


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