The Trade Desk Supports IAB Tech Lab Ads.txt Initiative to Eliminate Counterfeit Digital Ad Inventory & Halt Unauthorized Sales

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - May 17, 2017) - The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTD), a global technology platform for buyers of advertising, supports Ads.txt, the new open standard and technical specification for increasing transparency across the digital programmatic ecosystem, announced today by the IAB Tech Lab.

Through the ads.txt initiative, the IAB Tech Lab is encouraging publishers to publically declare select companies who are authorized to sell their digital inventory. With a goal of improving transparency in the programmatic supply chain, the ads.txt initiative enables buyers to easily identify authorized digital sellers and confidently buy authentic publisher inventory. This program will help eliminate any financial incentive from selling counterfeit and misrepresented media.

The Trade Desk supports this initiative and welcomes the opportunity to clean up the adtech ecosystem. As buyers, it is essential to understand who is authorized to sell authentic, premium inventory to ensure our customers have access to the highest quality inventory. The ads.txt standard will act as a catalyst for eradicating publishers who falsify traffic sources.

"Ads.txt is obviously a good thing for real premium publishers, but it is also great for advertisers," said Jeff Green, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Trade Desk. "This is an incremental step to increase quality in web advertising. I love that the implementation is technologically simple because its success will depend on all the big, premium publishers adopting it and adopting in unison. If this becomes ubiquitous, everyone except for bad actors will benefit. I am encouraging publishers to implement this simple file by extending a commitment -- if you implement it, we're more likely to buy your inventory. I see no reason why a premium publisher wouldn't implement this."

Dave Pickles, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of The Trade Desk added, "At The Trade Desk, our technology evaluates millions of opportunities every second and we go to great lengths to avoid low quality traffic so that we can focus our client's spend on impressions that have a very high likelihood of driving results. Anything that creates certainty around what is good, or is not, is helpful. I want publishers to know that if they implement this, our technology will consume the information they publish."

"We're excited to join with all different types of players, buy-side, sell-side and exchange-side, and work together. We urge everyone in the industry to adopt Ads.txt," said Brian Stempeck, Chief Client Officer of The Trade Desk.

"We partner with all different sizes and types of SSPs and exchanges. We're agnostic as to size, but not to quality," said Tim Sims, VP of Inventory at The Trade Desk. "Ads.txt will help us improve quality and, with credible members of our industry, this program will raise all boats. Focusing on quality is one of the most important next steps to make digital advertising grow."

About The Trade Desk, Inc.
The Trade Desk™ (NASDAQ: TTD) is a technology company that empowers buyers of advertising. Through its self-service, cloud-based platform, ad buyers can create, manage, and optimize more expressive data-driven digital advertising campaigns across ad formats, including display, video, audio, native and, social, on a multitude of devices, such as computers, mobile devices, and connected TV. Integrations with major data, inventory, and publisher partners ensure maximum reach and decisioning capabilities, and enterprise APIs enable custom development on top of the platform. Headquartered in Ventura, CA, The Trade Desk has offices across the United States, Europe, and Asia.