Donald Trump's new media company ended it's day of active first day of trading valued at $8 billion – more than established firms like the New York Times and Mattel – amid warnings investors were putting their money on Trump rather than the firm itself.

 At one point during the heat of its first day of trading on the NASDAQ, the firm that owns Truth Social was valued at $10 billion – despite having just $3 million in revenue for the first nine months of last year.

Even after the stock price cooled to $57.99, the firm was worth more than firms with loads of users and established track records. 

The Times, which was established in 1851 and reported on the firm's public trading debut which put its value as greater than Barbie-maker Mattel, is valued at about $7 billion. 

It's share price is about 2,000 times revenue.

Online message board Reddit, which had its own splashy debut days ago, has a similar market cap – but boasts 268 million active users. Its value was less than ten times its revenue.

Watchdogs are already warning that Trump's huge stake in the firm presents an influence opportunity, even beyond ethics issues that popped up when he decided not to sell his empire when he got elected in 2016 or place assets in a blind trust.

'Truth Social also has missed its projected user base by an order of magnitude. It's not a successful company. It's not a company that seems to have a plan for success for marking money. It's just essentially just a meme,' Jordan Libowitz of Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington.