The Trade Desk turns off Open Bidding as it goes after Google again

In a direct slap at Google, The Trade Desk has announced a solution designed to cut out intermediaries by providing advertisers with direct access to premium digital advertising inventory. 

Jeff Green, The Trade Desk co-founder, chairman and CEO says that his company will turn off Google's Open Bidding on its platform as OpenPath launches. 

Open Bidding was introduced by Google in the middle of the last decade to counter header bidding, a technology backed by the wider adtech ecosystem which was also designed to loosen Google's grip on digital ad dollars.

Other companies in the adtech sector have accused Google of monopolistic practices. The digital advertising giant is currently subject to an antitrust investigation brought by a number of US States which claims among other things, that it manipulated prices in its systems and used the proceeds of that manipulation to boost bids in other parts of its online marketplace. The alleged practice ensured customers using its tools won the auctions. 

Google denies this.

The Trade Desk has already signed up publishers including Reuters, The Washington Post, Gannett | USA Today Network, Conde Nast, McClatchy, Hearst Magazines, Hearst Newspapers, Advance Local, MediaNews Group, Tribune Publishing, Nexstar Digital and CafeMedia, among others.

According to Julia Belanger, GM of Zeus at The Washington Post. “We have long believed that a more streamlined supply chain benefits both advertisers and publishers. With Zeus, we have seen this translate into real revenue for publishers as they’ve taken control of their programmatic strategy.”

The Trade Desk says OpenPath gives publishers the ability to integrate directly with The Trade Desk and gives advertisers direct access to advertising impressions created by those publishers. It further argues that publishers are better positioned to maximize revenue from those impressions by removing inefficiencies in the programmatic supply chain for digital advertising.

In its announcement The Trade Desk specifically calls out what it describes as opaque and harmful privileges of the walled gardens.

“OpenPath levels the playing field for advertisers, ensuring they get transparent and objective access to the very best digital advertising inventory, starting with many of the world’s top journalistic outlets.” said Green.