When Google announced plans to deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome in 2020, it strengthened The Trade Desk’s position.
The second, open-source iteration of the tech, UID 2.0, doesn’t rely on cookies but translates a user’s login data, like an email address or phone number, into a pseudonymized alphanumeric token. The Trade Desk pitched it as a rival to Google’s own proposed post-cookie tools, which Green railed against in a January 2024 diatribe (“All those brilliant minds inside of a nearly $2 trillion company couldn’t do better than this?” he wrote).
But then, after years of postponing its cookie-cutting date, Google ultimately decided to keep cookies in Chrome, stifling momentum around alternative ID solutions, including UID and UID 2.0. (That’s not to say the tech isn’t relevant; advertisers today live in a multi-ID world where cookies, various APIs, and token-based systems like UID 2.0 all exist in tandem, but the collective push toward cookie replacements has petered out.)
Another one of The Trade Desk’s biggest strategic plays came in 2022 with the rollout of OpenPath, which leapfrogs supply-side platforms (SSPs) and lets advertisers transact directly with publishers. The idea: a shorter, more straightforward supply path cuts out unnecessary fees, reduces latency, and improves transparency in ad buying.
It was launched in conjunction with the DSP’s exit from Google’s Open Bidding, with The Trade Desk citing the “opaque and harmful privileges of the walled gardens.”
