The Trade Desk
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Company type | Public |
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Industry | |
Founded | 2009 |
Founders |
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Headquarters | Ventura, California, U.S. |
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Products |
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Revenue | ![]() |
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Total assets | ![]() |
Total equity | ![]() |
Number of employees | 3,522 (2024) |
Website | thetradedesk |
Footnotes / references [1] |
The Trade Desk, Inc. (stylized as theTradeDesk) is an American multinational technology company that specializes in real-time programmatic marketing automation technologies, products, and services, designed to personalize digital content delivery to users.
The Trade Desk is headquartered in Ventura, California. It is the largest independent demand-side platform in the world, competing against DoubleClick by Google, Facebook Ads, and others.[2][3][verification needed]
The company continued to grow since its founding in 2009. As of 2021, it offers a self-service publishing platform for brands & advertisers, a data management platform for analytics & segmentation, and enterprise APIs. It has over 225 partners worldwide, and is responsible[clarification needed] for delivering personalized content on Spotify.[4]
The Trade Desk has been recognized for its omni-channel approach to programmatic marketing automation, with strong data analytics capabilities, fast response-times, and support for various connected devices, online platforms, and media formats.[citation needed] It reported a 95% customer retention rate for 27 straight quarters in 2020, and an annual revenue of US$836 million in the same year.[5]
History
[edit]Early years
[edit]The Trade Desk was co-founded in 2009 by Jeff Green and David Pickles.[6][7] They met at Microsoft after it had acquired Green's real-time digital advertising auction firm, AdECN, in 2007.[7][8] By 2012, the company was included as an alpha partner[clarify] in Facebook’s launch of the real-time bidding (RTB) advertising platform, Facebook Exchange.[9]
In 2015, The Trade Desk was named among the top 10 of America’s Most Promising Companies by Forbes.[citation needed] Founders Green and Pickles were also named as Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of The Year 2015 in the Greater Los Angeles region.[9][10]
Initial public offering
[edit]On September 21, 2016, The Trade Desk became a public company. The company reached a market cap of US$40 billion by 2021.[citation needed]
Post-IPO growth
[edit]![]() | This section reads like a press release or a news article and may be largely based on routine coverage. (September 2025) |
In 2017, The Trade Desk integrated connected TV buying and measurement directly into its platform;[11] acquired marketing insights firm AdBrain;[12] and partnered with fraud prevention firm White Ops to block fraudulent ad traffic prior to purchase.[11][13] The firm also improved transparency in programmatic buying by enabling buyers to see all selling or reselling parties to a bid request.[14]
In 2018, the firm launched its programmatic ad buying platform in China, giving access[clarify] to Chinese media companies, such as Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu Exchange Services.[15][16] It also launched new AI tools: an AI forecasting engine named Koa, a new user interface, new tools for mapping strategies called The Trade Desk Planner, and a proprietary global user identity resolution tool called Unified ID.[17][18]
In 2019, Amazon opened connected TV (CTV) Apps integrated with Amazon Publisher Services, enabling the purchase of ad inventory for third-party TV content provider The Trade Desk, through Amazon Fire TV devices.[19]
In September 2019, The Trade Desk launched an advertising campaign, "Media for Humankind", to position itself as a "more transparent digital advertising"[20] alternative to Google and Facebook.[21][22]
In mid-2020, Unified ID 2.0 (UID 2.0) launched as a second iteration to leverage a post-cookie internet using encrypted email and phone number data to create a secure identity standard.[23] The identity resolution software was adopted by Disney[24] and Paramount,[25] as well as by major advertisers, including Procter & Gamble and Unilever.[26] In early 2022, The Trade Desk launched OpenPath, granting advertisers direct access to its premium digital advertising inventory.[27] Publishers using OpenPath include Conde Nast, Reuters and The Washington Post.[28]
In March 2024, NBCUniversal announced that its broadcast content for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics would be available, in partnership with The Trade Desk, to online automated programmatic marketers, for the first time.[29][30]
The company has consistently been named to annual lists by, among others, Fortune magazine,[31] and was included with the Forbes Global 2000 in 2022.[32]
In May 2024, Netflix announced its first expansion of its advertising partnerships to include The Trade Desk, Magnite and Google DV360.[33]
Financials
[edit]The Trade Desk raised $2.5 million of venture capital in March, 2010. Investors included venture capital firms Founder Collective and IA Ventures, and angel investors Jerry Neumann and Josh Stylman.[34]
In 2017, revenue rose 52 percent to $308 million,[6] then rose to $477 million in 2018.[15] In 2019, third-quarter revenue was reported as $164 million, attributed to the growth of connected TV advertising.[35]
The Trade Desk finished 2022 with a record total spent on the platform of $7.8 billion,[36] and annual revenue of over $1.5 billion.[37]
Workforce and offices
[edit]![]() | This section may contain information not important or relevant to the article's subject. (September 2025) |
The firm currently employs around 3,500 people in 25 office locations worldwide.[1][38] It was ranked among the 100 Best Medium Workplaces by Fortune in 2018, and have been continually named in the list since then.[39]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b "The Trade Desk, Inc. 2024 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 21, 2025.
- ^ FED. "Forrester". Forrester. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
- ^ Frankenfield, Joseph (August 15, 2018). "Ad Tech Firm Poised to Surge 50%". Retrieved November 18, 2018.
- ^ "The Trade Desk Partners with Spotify and More for Audio Programmatic – Lovely Mobile News". Retrieved 2022-02-16.
- ^ "Trade Desk Revenue 2015-2021 | TTD". www.macrotrends.net. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
- ^ a b Tom Metcalf (31 August 2018). "Ad Man Inspired by Goldman Becomes a Billionaire". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
- ^ a b Chowdhry, Amit. "How Jeff Green Took The Trade Desk From A Simple Idea To A Programmatic Ad Giant". Forbes. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
- ^ Martinez, Arlene (July 21, 2019). "Ventura's The Trade Desk returns to where it all started". Ventura County Star. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
- ^ a b "The Trade Desk Inc. (TTD), Interview with Jeff Green, CEO". Nasdaq. November 8, 2016. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
- ^ "The Trade Desk, Inc". UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION. February 22, 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
- ^ a b Heine, Christopher (September 21, 2017). "The Trade Desk's New Product Helps Advertisers Reach Consumers on TV and Digital". Retrieved November 22, 2019.
- ^ "The Trade Desk acquires the assets of Adbrain Ltd". Reuters. October 25, 2017. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
- ^ Shields, Ronan (September 1, 2017). "The Trade Desk and White Ops ink deal to block fraudulent traffic before it is bought". The Drum. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
- ^ "Trade Desk Clashes With Google Over Transparency Initiative". AdExchange. July 22, 2019. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
- ^ a b Graham, Megan (May 31, 2019). "This US ad tech company is cracking into the Chinese market, and Wall Street loves it". Retrieved November 18, 2019.
- ^ Jhonsa, Eric (March 26, 2019). "The Trade Desk Remains a Pretty Unique Story – Tech Check". Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ^ Shields, Ronan (May 21, 2019). "How The Trade Desk Is Integrating With Prebid to Boost Its Unified ID". Retrieved November 18, 2018.
- ^ "Our industry needs a common cookie language. Let's talk". Retrieved November 22, 2019.
- ^ Graham, Megan (July 26, 2019). "The Trade Desk hits 52-week high on deal to sell video ads on Amazon Fire TV". Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ^ Murphy, Paige (September 24, 2019). "The Trade Desk takes aim at Google and Facebook in a new campaign". AdNews. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
- ^ Wodinsky, Shoshana (September 26, 2019). "The Trade Desk Focuses on People, Not Programmatic in Latest Campaign". AdWeek. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
- ^ Graham, Megan (September 26, 2019). "The Trade Desk's new ad campaign pokes Google and Facebook in the ribs". AdWeek. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
- ^ "The Trade Desk Is Building Version 2.0 of Its Unified ID" AdWeek
- ^ "Unilever first to test Disney’s identity integration with Trade Desk" Marketing Dive
- ^ "Paramount Enables Unified ID 2.0 for Connected TV Ad Sales" NextTV
- ^ "Procter & Gamble Is Doing The Unified ID 2.0 Thing" AdExchanger
- ^ "SPO Is Evolving Thanks To Direct Publisher Connections And A Push For Sustainability" AdExchanger
- ^ "Trade Desk to counter Google's ad grip with tool for publishers" Reuters
- ^ "NBCUniversal Leans Into AI In Upfront Ad Sales Push". Yahoo. March 20, 2024. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
- ^ "The 'crème de la crème': 2024 Paris Olympics goes programmatic on Peacock". The Current. March 20, 2024. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
- ^ "The Trade Desk" Fortune
- ^ "Trade Desk" Forbes
- ^ "Netflix Says Ad Tier Has 40M Users, Plans to Bring Ad Tech In-House in Shift From Microsoft" Hollywood Reporter. May 15, 2024
- ^ "The Trade Desk CEO Green Announces Funding And Investors". AdExchanger. March 23, 2010. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
- ^ Sleffo, George P. (November 7, 2019). "THE TRADE DESK BETS BIG ON CONNECTED TV AS REVENUE JUMPS 38 PERCENT". Ad Age. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
- ^ "The Trade Desk’s bumper quarter has some important caveats" DIGIDAY
- ^ "Trade Desk Revenue 2015-2023" Macrotrends
- ^ "Office Locations | The Trade Desk". www.thetradedesk.com. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
- ^ "100 Best Medium Workplaces". Fortune. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
External links
[edit]- Official website
- The Current (News resource by theTradeDesk)
- Business data for The Trade Desk, Inc.:
- Companies in the Nasdaq-100
- Companies listed on the Nasdaq
- Marketing companies established in 2009
- Online advertising services and affiliate networks
- Companies based in Ventura County, California
- 2016 initial public offerings
- Online advertising
- Digital marketing companies of the United States
- 2009 establishments in California