The Trade Desk Posts Q1 Revenues of $220 Million, Takes Aim at Google's 'Opaque Cohorts'

Today, the Trade Desk posted revenues of $219.8 million for the opening quarter of 2021, with the independent ad-tech company teasing an upcoming overhaul to its platform dubbed Solimar. Company CEO Jeff Green also used the company's subsequent earnings call to explain a further update to Unified ID 2.0, which it maintains will prevent the leakage of consumer data to the sector's anonymous middlemen. In addition, Green subtly referred to Google's stance on protecting internet user privacy, labeling their cohort-based approach to online user targeting as self-interested. During Q1 2021, connected television spurred The Trade Desk's revenue growth with its total earnings haul, representing a 37% year-on-year increase and the company estimating Q2 revenues in the range of $259 million-to-$262 million—an annual acceleration of 86% to 88%. Unified ID updates The Trade Desk has been proactive in preparing the industry for the decline of third-party cookies, with the DSP recently handing control of its nascent ad targeting solution Unified ID 2 to open-source industry body Prebid in a bid to further assure third parties of its neutrality. Additional efforts to further win-over publishers and advertisers include collaboration with Criteo to build a Single Sign-On Solution, dubbed OpenPass, with The Trade Desk also working on a further encryption tool to better assure publishers of UID2's security credentials. Dubbed Double Encryption for Publishers (DEP) and initially developed for broadcast networks, DEP provides an additional layer of security publishers can use on top of UID2. The update means the audience data provided by publishers to the ad-tech supply chain can only be unencrypted by specified partners. "Many content owners are happy to partner and share data with companies like The Trade Desk to the companies in the middle that they're concerned about," Green explained. "DEP allows publishers to encrypt UID2 and only unencrypt it for designated parties, such as a particular advertiser. It protects against data leakage, and the publisher has the power to control the process with precision." 'Opaque cohorts' Green told investors the amount of support UID2 has received from "open internet" players—such as advertisers, publishers and fellow ad-tech companies—is a testament to the industry's desire to rally around an online ad-targeting solution that wasn't operated by one of the industry's behemoths with some elements of Google's Privacy Sandbox coming in for criticism from the CEO. "We're skeptical about solutions that lean on opaque cohorts or solutions that try to make decisions for consumers," added Green. "What we're doing here is create a better internet for everybody, and we're not just trying to protect ourselves. … I think there are a lot of tech companies that [have that as] their primary focus, and we're trying to create a better internet." Solimar In previous quarterly earnings calls, The Trade Desk has mentioned a forthcoming update to its platform called Solimar, with Green revealing today that this will come in the second half of the year. Company executives hailed Solimar as the most comprehensive upgrade to its offering, claiming it will better enable advertisers to optimize their ad campaigns with less need for manual chores, as well as enabling them to activate first-party data in a privacy-compliant way. "Solimar is a closed-loop system that does more of the work for you, added Green, "engaging a much richer measurement marketplace and incorporating on- and off-site data so an advertiser can better tie a marketing campaign to a real business outcome," added Green.