The Trade Desk broke the $1 billion mark in gross ad spend on its platform in 2016, generating $75 million in net profit, the company disclosed Thursday afternoon in its fourth quarter earnings report.
The demand-side platform (DSP) touted the growth of its omnichannel offerings. In 2016, display ad campaigns made up less than half of The Trade Desk’s revenue for the first time.
Mobile in-app and mobile video revenue grew about 400% and 300% respectively year-over-year, while native spending jumped 700% over the previous quarter.
Spending more than doubled from the previous quarter for The Trade Desk’s connected TV business. The category includes broadcasters’ digital streams, early-stage addressable, linear options like AT&T’s DirecTV Now and connected-TV platforms, such as Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.
“Of all the numbers we’ve talked about, that’s the one I’m most excited about,” said Jeff Green, company founder and CEO.
Connected TV demand and supply is still limited so doubling that revenue is insignificant next to growth in native or mobile, but Green said that boosting engineering and account investments in addressable TV beyond the profitability of the category is “an important land grab we’re staking out right now.”
International expansion is also expected to weigh on The Trade Desk’s bottom line until the company’s footprint develops – and until international programmatic adoption takes off. Japan is the third biggest media market in the world, but only 5% of its media is programmatic.
Twenty percent of The Trade Desk’s staff is abroad, but international markets account for 10% of revenue. Green expects international markets to account for roughly 15% of revenue in 2017.
The DSP’s burst of head count and product investment will keep earnings at a plateau next year, even though gross spend on the platform is estimated to rise to $1.45 billion.
