NEW: This article pulls insights from our Live Earnings Report: Marketing & Advertising Tracker Q2 2026.

The news: The Trade Desk (TTD) is struggling. The open-web demand-side platform (DSP) reported just 3% growth in Q2, down from 19% a year earlier, as a broader industry shift toward first-party data and walled gardens erodes its core business.

By the numbers:

• Revenues: $715 million, +3% YoY. Revenues came in below its guidance of $750 million.
• Net income: $64 million, -29% YoY
• Diluted EPS: $0.14, -22% YoY

“This quarter did not meet the standard we set for ourselves,” said CEO Jeff Green. “We have a clear understanding of the factors that impacted our performance, and we are taking decisive action to strengthen our execution, upgrade our platform, and sharpen our focus on the areas where we can create the greatest value.”

The Trade Desk reported a $650 million guidance for the current quarter.

Zooming out: The Trade Desk’s stock has fallen 80% over the last year, a sign that investors are losing confidence in the company and the importance of open-web ad exchanges generally. Intense pricing competition from Amazon—which is aggressively cutting rates and offering 10% spending matches to establish its DSP as an industry default—has forced TTD to lower its fees, cutting into revenue growth. Q2 results showed that pain hasn’t subsided.

• We forecast US open-web programmatic digital display ad spending will grow from $43.21 billion this year to $52.11 billion by 2028.
• US walled garden spending, meanwhile, will be nearly four times that in 2028, totalling $226.68 billion.