The Trade Desk wants you to know it plans to be busy over the next few weeks.
According to a new LinkedIn post by CEO and Founder Jeff Green, the company plans to share “about 10 announcements over the next two weeks.” This follows last week’s launch of Deal Desk, which has been positioned as part of Kokai, TTD’s AI-powered offering.
In his LinkedIn post, Green also shared that Kokai has seen $10 billion in ad spend managed through the platform.
Why This Matters:
TTD hasn’t exactly nailed down a clear storyline following its impressive Q1 earnings rebound. It recently launched OpenSincera, a supply chain transparency initiative, but the Kokai and AI narrative has felt somewhat thin.
Deal Desk, coupled with Green’s $10 billion data point, seems to be an effort to strengthen that story—and, clearly, based on Green’s post, there are more announcements to come, presumably focused on Kokai.
Experts React:
TTD was also managing a bit of a funky news cycle last week, as it reportedly faces growing pressure from Amazon. Maybe the coming PR barrage will help push back on that perception.
Our Take:
Deals Desk has been described as part of Kokai, but it’s still a little unclear what the AI components are or how they tie into Kokai overall. (EMarketer describes it as a sell-side tool that lets “partners build and manage deals via API.”)
Random thing but two days before the Deals Desk announcement, TTD shared a job description for Manager, Deal Desk. Here’s what that description said about the Deal Desk team:
“The Trade Desk’s Global Deal Desk team plays a critical role in supporting revenue-generating activities by ensuring that deals are structured in a financially sound and compliant manner. Our team works closely with Sales, Legal, Operations, Revenue Accounting, and other cross-functional partners to review and guide complex, non-standard deals.
Our primary objective is to ensure that each deal aligns with company policies, pricing and discounting guidelines, and revenue recognition standards such as ASC 606. By providing financial insight and governance, the Deal Desk helps mitigate risk, improve margins, and ensure consistency in deal execution across regions. They also play a key role in contract reviews, identifying terms that may impact revenue recognition, and advising on alternative structures that support both compliance and business objectives.”
Assuming this is related to the Deal Desk product launch, not quite sure what the AI piece is, but we’ll see.
