Trade Desk, Inc.

Overview

The Trade Desk, Inc. is a technology company in the digital advertising sector. Its independent demand-side platform enables advertisers and agencies to plan, buy, and measure advertising across the open internet, including connected TV, video, mobile, and display. The company describes its mission as “making digital advertising better.” [1][2]

Its media-buying platform, Kokai, uses AI to support campaign planning, buying, and measurement; related initiatives include OpenPath, which connects buyers with publishers, and UID2, an identity framework. Founded in 2009, the company operates internationally, with 3,843 full-time employees across 21 countries at year-end 2025.[3]+3

For the year ended December 31, 2025, Trade Desk reported revenue of $2.896 billion.[6] [6]+5

Products & services

The Trade Desk’s principal product is an advertising technology platform used by advertisers and agencies to plan, execute, and measure data-driven campaigns across digital media. It supports programmatic media buying, use of first- and third-party data, real-time campaign monitoring and optimization, measurement of campaign outcomes, and custom integrations through APIs.[7]+6

The platform’s AI features include Koa, which provides insights and recommendations and supports predictive clearing, impression relevance scoring, measurement, forecasting, budget optimization, and KPI scoring. Other capabilities include automated campaign optimization, granular reporting and analytics, data-management and measurement tools, media planning, private-marketplace contracting, and access to publisher inventory through a direct ad-server tag.[14]+5 Kokai is the platform upgrade; Kokai Zuma is described as adding agentic AI, a redesigned experience, and simplified measurement.[20]

Other named offerings include Audience Unlimited, an AI-enabled data marketplace intended to simplify data buying, and Audience Assistant; both were described as beta features in the company’s announcement.[21] Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) is an open-source identity framework that converts email addresses or phone numbers into pseudonymous identifiers for advertising and reporting, with EUID as a Europe-focused variant.[22][23] OpenPath provides advertisers a direct route to premium publisher inventory, while OpenAds is a publisher auction initiative.[24][25]

The company reports one operating segment centered on its advertising technology platform and does not disclose revenue by named product or product category; consequently, product-specific revenue shares are not reported.[26] [7]+19

Geographic presence

Trade Desk, Inc. reported FY2025 revenue of $2.897 billion, of which $2.477 billion (about 85.5%) came from the United States and $419.6 million (about 14.5%) from international markets. The company reports geography at this U.S./international level, without breaking international revenue down by country.[27]

The company is headquartered in Ventura, California, and maintains offices across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. It also leases office and data-center space in those regions.[28][29] At December 31, 2025, it had 3,843 full-time employees in 21 countries; the filing does not provide a geographic breakdown of employees.[5] [27]+4

Business segments

Trade Desk, Inc. reports one operating and reportable segment: its advertising technology platform. Management reviews the business on a consolidated basis, and the platform is used across geographies, advertising channels, and industry verticals; accordingly, the company does not report revenue contributions for separate product or service segments. The 2026 second-quarter filing confirms this segment presentation.[30][26]

The platform enables clients to develop advertising campaigns and select advertising inventory, value-added services, and data. As the company reports a single segment, that segment represents 100% of reported segment revenue; consolidated revenue was $2,896.284 million in 2025.[31][27]

As an alternative disclosure—not a segment breakdown—the company presents revenue by geography. In 2025, the United States generated $2,476.683 million (about 85.5% of revenue) and international markets generated $419.601 million (about 14.5%). These geographic amounts are based on client or client-affiliate address.[27][32] [30]+4

Company history

The Trade Desk was founded in 2009 by Jeff Green and Dave Pickles.[33] It went public in September 2016, pricing its initial public offering at $18 per share and beginning trading on Nasdaq under the ticker TTD.[34][35]

In 2017, the company acquired the assets of Adbrain, including technology related to identity resolution.[36] In 2020, it advanced the Unified ID 2.0 initiative, an industry identity approach intended as an alternative to third-party cookies.[37]

The company launched its Solimar media-trading platform in 2021, followed by OpenPath, which offered advertisers direct access to participating publishers’ inventory, in 2022.[38][39] In 2023, it introduced Kokai, a media-buying platform incorporating AI capabilities. That year, co-founder Dave Pickles stepped down as chief technology officer and left the board, while remaining an advisor.[40][41] [42]+10

Sources

• www.thetradedesk.com[1]
• investors.thetradedesk.com[2]
• www.thetradedesk.com[3]
• www.thetradedesk.com[4]
• www.sec.gov[5]
• Trade Desk, Inc. — Full financial report (2025 Y)
  22 citations

  [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][22][27][28][29][30][31][32][43]
• www.thetradedesk.com[20]
• www.thetradedesk.com[21]
• www.thetradedesk.com[23]
• www.thetradedesk.com[24]
• www.thetradedesk.com[25]
• Trade Desk, Inc. — Full financial report (2026 Q 2)[26]
• www.thetradedesk.com[33]
• investors.thetradedesk.com[34]
• investors.thetradedesk.com[35]
• investors.thetradedesk.com[36]
• investors.thetradedesk.com[37]
• investors.thetradedesk.com[38]
• investors.thetradedesk.com[39]
• investors.thetradedesk.com[40]
• investors.thetradedesk.com[41]
• Trade Desk, Inc. — Transcript (2021 Y)[42]