Like other independent adtech companies, The Trade Desk posted strong Q2 results.
The company reported revenue of $694 million, up 19% year-over-year—beating its guidance of $682 million. Growth was driven by CTV, retail media, and supply chain improvements, according to CEO Jeff Green.
“With continued innovation in Kokai, growing adoption of OpenPath, and deeper partnerships across the ecosystem, we’re delivering exceptional value to our clients and helping to strengthen the open internet in the process,” Green said.
However, the market appeared spooked by lighter-than-expected Q3 guidance of $717 million. For comparison, The Trade Desk reported $628 million in Q3 2024 revenue, a 27% year-over-year increase. If our math is right, $717 million would represent roughly 14% growth—marking a fairly clear deceleration.
The stock, as a result, is down 30% after hours.
Why This Matters:
A tough market response for The Trade Desk, just as it seemed to be getting its mojo back after missing expectations and seeing its stock plunge earlier this year. A few notable callouts:
If we’re looking at investor sentiment—not just the earnings themselves—some familiar critiques continue to surface.
The AI story: Kokai is growing, per Jeff Green, but the narrative isn’t landing as clearly or compellingly as he’d like.
The quality pitch: Is it resonating with investors? Transparency, media quality, and supply chain improvements may matter in theory—but right now, performance and new AI products appear to drive more interest. Messaging around a longstanding product with slower-than-hoped adoption isn’t generating much excitement.
Experts React:
Is Amazon Jeff Green’s boogeyman? The company has aggressively pushed and innovated its DSP over the past year—raising questions about whether that’s contributing to TTD’s deceleration. Green, for his part, seemed eager to tackle it:
“Yeah, thanks for the question. Honestly, I was hoping somebody would ask this question because it’s perhaps one of them that I’m most excited to talk about.”
He continued:
“We have long said that walled gardens—whether it’s Amazon or Google—are best suited to buy their own inventory with their own data. But their bias makes it hard for them to buy across the open internet in a truly objective way.
So when you look at it from that perspective, Amazon is not a competitor. And Google really isn’t much of a competitor anymore either. We’re trying to buy the open internet using technology that values media objectively. We don’t have any media, and we don’t grade our own homework. And to me, all the data suggests that we’re right on this.”
Is the market buying it, however? Let’s see what X is saying:
Our Take:
The Trade Desk and Jeff Green had regained momentum heading into this quarter, and Q2 results were objectively strong. The company literally joined the S&P 500 a few weeks ago. The market’s reaction may be an overcorrection—but time will tell.
