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| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Founded | 2009; 17 years ago (2009) |
| Founders |
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| Headquarters | Ventura, California, U.S. |
Key people |
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| Products |
|
| Revenue |  US$2.44 billion (2024) |
| US$427 million (2024) | |
| US$393 million (2024) | |
| Total assets | US$6.11 billion (2024) |
| Total equity | US$2.95 billion (2024) |
Number of employees | 3,522 (2024) |
| Website | thetradedesk |
| Footnotes / references [1] | |
The Trade Desk, Inc. (stylized astheTradeDesk) is an Americanmultinationaltechnology company that specializes in real-timeprogrammatic marketing automation technologies, products, and services, designed to personalize digital content delivery to users.
The Trade Desk is headquartered inVentura, California. It is the largest independentdemand-side platform in the world, competing againstDoubleClick 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 enterpriseAPIs. It has over 225 partners worldwide, and is responsible[clarification needed] for delivering personalized content onSpotify.[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 ofUS$836 million in the same year.[5]
The Trade Desk was co-founded in 2009 byJeff Green and David Pickles.[6][7] They met atMicrosoft after it had acquired Green's real-time digital advertising auction firm,AdECN, in 2007.[7][8] By 2012, the company was included as analpha partner[clarify] inFacebook’s launch of thereal-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 byForbes.[citation needed] Founders Green and Pickles were also named asErnst & Young Entrepreneurs of The Year 2015 in the Greater Los Angeles region.[9][10]
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]
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In 2017, The Trade Desk integratedconnected 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 asAlibaba,Tencent andBaidu Exchange Services.[15][16] It also launched newAI 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, throughAmazon 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 includeConde Nast,Reuters, andThe Washington Post.[28]
In March 2024,NBCUniversal announced that its broadcast content for the Paris2024 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 theForbes Global 2000 in 2022.[32]
In May 2024,Netflix announced its first expansion of its advertising partnerships to include The Trade Desk,Magnite, andGoogle DV360.[33]
The Trade Desk raised $2.5 million of venture capital in March, 2010. Investors included venture capital firmsFounder Collective andIA Ventures, andangel investorsJerry Neumann andJosh 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 ofconnected 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]
After 33 consecutive earning periods or meeting (or exceeding) financial expectations, The Trade Desk missed analyst expectations by about 2% in Q4 2024. Despite reporting growth, the stock tumbled by more than 32% in February 2025 after missing this target. The Trade Desk's revenues for the quarter were $741 million; total 2024 revenues grew 26%, reaching $2.4 billion.[38]
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The firm currently employs around 3,500 people in 25 office locations worldwide.[1][39] It was ranked among the 100 Best Medium Workplaces by Fortune in 2018, and have been continually named in the list since then.[40]