Home Online Advertising Unified ID 2.0 To Enter Beta Phase

Unified ID 2.0 To Enter Beta Phase

SHARE:
Unified ID 2.0 is about to begin beta testing.
An illustrated stamp that says something is still testing. All on white background.

Unified ID 2.0 is about to begin beta testing.

Starting next week, advertisers will be able to start transacting on impressions using Unified ID 2.0 identifiers and officially incorporate them into the bid stream.

Michelle Hulst, COO of The Trade Desk, shared that update during a virtual event on Thursday hosted by LUMA Partners about the state of digital media.

Unified ID 2.0, originally spearheaded by The Trade Desk, aims to replace the third-party cookie with an alternative identifier tied to hashed and encrypted email addresses.

Buzz about UID 2.0 accelerated greatly last week after Google’s announcement that it won’t support identifiers that enable cross-site tracking. There’s been so much chatter that it’s easy to forget the initiative is still very early in the testing phase.

And Google’s POV aside, there’s growing momentum behind the effort.

“I don’t think anything’s materially changed from Google’s position before,” said Hulst, who noted that the main takeaway from Google’s blog post should be that it reinforces the fact that third-party cookies really are going away (really, really).

The Trade Desk has been doing proof-of-concept testing on Unified ID 2.0 with publishers and other partners since autumn 2020.

In January, the Partnership for Addressable Responsible Media began reviewing the UID 2.0 code, followed a few weeks later by the news that Prebid.org will serve as the ID’s independent operator.

The IAB Tech Lab will likely take on the role of UID 2.0’s administrator.

The Trade Desk recently shared that UID 2.0 already has 50 million users, despite still being in alpha.

Subscribe

AdExchanger Daily

Get our editors’ roundup delivered to your inbox every weekday.

As the effort enters beta, there will be a continued and ongoing focus on signing up more partners to support it.

“Look for more announcements, especially from publishers and advertisers, which should be coming soon,” Hulst said.

Quite a few companies have gotten involved with UID 2.0 since October, including LiveRamp, The Washington Post/Zeus Performance publishers, Xandr, Criteo, Nielsen, Magnite, PubMatic, Index Exchange, OpenX, Neustar, Mediavine, IRIS.TV, FuboTV and Fox-owned Tubi.

Must Read

Former FTC commissioner Alvaro Bedoya speaks to AdExchanger Managing Editor Allison Schiff at Programmatic IO NY 2025.

Advertisers Probably Shouldn’t Target Teens At All, Cautions Former FTC Commissioner

Alvaro Bedoya shared his qualms with digital advertising’s more controversial targeting tactics and how kids use gen AI and social media.

Wall Street Turned Against Ad Tech – But May Learn To Love It Again

What can pureplay ad tech companies do to clean up their rep on the Street?

AppsFlyer and Roku’s New SRN Integration Will Shed Light On CTV Campaign Impact

Roku and AppsFlyer announced the launch of a new self-reporting network (SRN) integration between both companies, which will allow mobile app advertisers to more effectively measure their streaming video campaigns

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters
Comic: Gamechanger (Google lost the DOJ's search antitrust case)

DOJ v. Google: How Judge Brinkema Seems To Be Thinking After Week One

Where the DOJ v. Google ad tech antitrust trial stands after one week’s worth of remedies arguments.

Swish, A Company That's Bringing Programmatic to Product Sampling, Announces Seed Funding

Swish, a startup that partners with retailers to provide product full-size CPG samples to people doing their grocery shopping online, announces $2.3 million in seed funding.

DOJ v. Google: During Opening Arguments, The DOJ And Google Battle Over An AdX Divestiture

Court is back in session. And the fate of  the open internet is in the balance.