Rumble (NASDAQ: RUM — $2.29 billion) describes itself as “a high growth, video sharing platform designed to help content creators manage, distribute, and monetize their content.” In reality, Rumble is largely YouTube for hyper-conservatives and it has struggled to move into mainstream content. Despite backing from Republican heavyweights, financial progress has been slow and the company’s key operating metrics appear dubious. Currently trading for ~170x revenue, Rumble shares may be priced to tumble.

Founded in 2013, Rumble’s transition to conservative politics happened in July 2020 after Republican Congressman Devin Nunes joined the platform. Today, Rumble is home to channels like NewsMax TV, One America News Network, and The Lindell Report by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

Jan 2022 update

Culper Research published on Rumble (NASDAQ: RUM — $2.22 billion), a conservative-leaning video platform. Culper alleged Rumble’s user base is a fraction of its claimed size of 80 million monthly active users and wrote, in part,

“SimilarWeb estimates that in Q4, Rumble.com saw a unique web-based audience of just 28.9 million, SEMrush estimates 38.8 million unique web visitors, and we estimate Rumble’s cumulative mobile app downloads totaled just 9.5 million through Q4 2022. Combined, the web and app data suggest to us that Rumble has only 38 to 48 million unique users, and the company has overstated its user base by 66% to 108%.”

Culper also criticized the company for an outdated advertising tech stack, noted a huge September 2023 lock-up expiration, and called Rumble “a doomed operation.”