Trade Desk 10-K 2017-12-31

10-K 1 ttd-10k_20171231.htm 10-K

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017

OR

For the transition period from to

Commission File Number 001-37879

THE TRADE DESK, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

42 N. Chestnut Street

Ventura, California 93001

(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

(805) 585-3434

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2017, based on the closing sales price for the Registrant’s Class A common stock, as reported on the NASDAQ Global Market, was approximately $1,543,997,839. As of January 31, 2018, there were 32,695,082 shares of the registrant’s Class A common stock outstanding and 9,155,054 shares of the registrant’s Class B common stock outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s Proxy Statement for the 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the extent stated herein. Such proxy statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2017.

THE TRADE DESK, INC.

ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or our future financial or operating performance and may include statements concerning, among other things, our business strategy (including anticipated trends and developments in, and management plans for, our business and the markets in which we operate), financial results, operating results, revenues, operating expenses, and capital expenditures, sales and marketing initiatives and competition. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “suggests,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans or intentions. These statements are not guarantees of future performance; they reflect our current views with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from expectations or results projected or implied by forward-looking statements.

We discuss many of these risks in Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K in greater detail under the heading “Risk Factors” and in other filings we make from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. Also, these forward-looking statements represent our estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which are inherently subject to change and involve risks and uncertainties. Unless required by federal securities laws, we assume no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated, to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the statements are made. Given these uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Investors should read this Annual Report on Form 10-K and the documents that we reference in this report and have filed with the SEC completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

PART I

Overview

We are a global technology company that empowers ad buyers by providing a self-service omnichannel software platform that enables our clients to purchase and manage data-driven digital advertising campaigns. Our platform allows clients to manage integrated advertising campaigns across various advertising channels and formats, including connected TV (CTV), mobile, video, audio, display, social and native, on a multitude of devices, including smart TVs, computers, and various mobile devices including phones and tablets.

We commercially launched our platform in 2011 targeting display advertising. We have since extended our platform to address additional advertising formats, and in 2017, approximately 62% of gross spend on our platform was for mobile, video, audio, social, and native.

Our clients are the advertising agencies and other service providers for advertisers, with whom we enter into ongoing master services agreements, or MSAs. We generate revenue by charging our clients a platform fee based on a percentage of a client’s total spend on advertising, data and other features through our platform.

The Trade Desk, Inc. is a Delaware corporation established in 2009, headquartered in Ventura, California.

Our Industry

We believe that several trends in the advertising industry, happening in parallel, are driving a shift to programmatic advertising – the selling and buying of advertising inventory electronically.

Some of the key industry trends are:

Media is Becoming Digital. Media is increasingly becoming digital as a result of advances in technology and changes in consumer behavior. This shift has enabled unprecedented options for advertisers to target and measure their advertising campaigns across nearly every media channel and device. The digital advertising market is a significant and growing part of the total advertising market. According to International Data Corporation, or IDC, global advertising spend was estimated to be approximately $672 billion in 2017 and is expected to grow to $764 billion in 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 3.3%. Also, according to IDC, global digital advertising spend was $229 billion in 2017 and is expected to grow to $360 billion in 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 11.9%. We believe that the market is evolving and that advertisers will shift more spend to digital media. Since media is becoming increasingly digital, decisions based on consumer and behavioral data are more prevalent.

Fragmentation of Audience. As digital media grows, audience fragmentation is accelerating. A growing “long tail” of websites and content presents a challenge for advertisers trying to reach a large audience. Audience fragmentation has substantially impacted TV content distribution, perhaps more than any other channel, which we believe is setting up a significant change in how TV advertising inventory is monetized. Mirroring the fragmentation occurring in content, the number of devices used by individual consumers has increased. Both of these fragmentation trends are opportunities for technology companies that can consolidate and simplify media buying options for advertisers and their agencies.

Increased Use of Data. Advances in software and hardware and the growing use of the Internet have made it possible to collect and rapidly process massive amounts of user data. Data vendors are able to collect user information across a wide range of Internet properties and connected devices, aggregate it and combine it with other data sources. This data is then made non-identifiable and available within seconds based on specific parameters and attributes. Advertisers can integrate this targeting data with their own or an agency’s proprietary data relating to client attributes, the advertisers’ own store locations and other related characteristics. Through the use of these data sources, together with real-time feedback on consumer reactions to the ads, programmatic advertising increases the value of impressions for advertisers, inventory owners and viewers who receive more relevant ads.

Automation of Ad Buying. The growing complexity of digital advertising has increased the need for automation. Technology that enables fast, accurate and cost-effective decision-making through the application of computer algorithms that use extensive data sets has become critical for the success of digital advertising campaigns. Using programmatic inventory buying tools, advertisers are able to automate their campaigns, providing them with better price discovery, on an impression-by-impression basis. As a result, advertisers are able to bid and purchase the advertising inventory they value the most, pay less for advertising inventory they do not value as much, and abstain from buying advertising inventory that does not fit their campaign parameters.

Digital Advertising Eco-System

The digital advertising eco-system is divided into buyers, sellers and marketplaces, which can be further segmented on the basis of whether participants provide services or technology. We believe that participants on the buy-side or sell-side should be advocates for their buyers or sellers, while those in the market business should act as a referee or have market-driven incentives to protect or enhance the integrity of the marketplace. We believe that there are inherent conflicts of interest when market participants serve both buyers and sellers.

What We Do

We empower ad buyers, by providing a self‑service omnichannel software platform that enables our clients to purchase and manage data‑driven digital advertising campaigns. Our platform allows clients to manage integrated advertising campaigns across various advertising channels and formats, including CTV, mobile, video, audio, display, social and native, on a multitude of devices, including smart TVs, computers, and various mobile devices including phones and tablets.

Our Platform

Our platform enables a media planner or buyer at an advertising agency to:

At the core of our platform is our bid-factor based architecture, which we believe has advantages over line-item based architectures that other buy-side systems use. Our bid-factor based system allows users to define desirable factors and the value associated with those factors. Based on these factors, our platform can compute in real-time the value of impressions and bid only for optimal impressions. Because of the granularity of the bid factors, users of our platform can rapidly create billions of different bid permutations with only a few clicks. This expressiveness enables better targeting, pricing and campaign results.

Our platform is useful and user-friendly based on the following:

Some of the key features of our platform are:

Our Technology

The core elements of our technology are:

Our Growth Strategy

The key elements of our long-term growth strategy include:

Our Clients

Our clients consist of purchasers of programmatic advertising inventory and data. As of December 31, 2017, we had approximately 657 clients, consisting primarily of advertising agencies or groups within advertising agencies that have independent relationships with us, manage budgets independently of one-another, are based in different jurisdictions, and are served by unique Trade Desk teams. Many of these agencies are owned by holding companies, where decision-making is decentralized such that purchasing decisions are made, and relationships with advertisers are located, at the agency, local branch or division level. Our client count includes only those parties which have signed MSAs with us and have spent more than $20,000 on our platform.

If all of our individual client contractual relationships were aggregated at the holding company level, two clients would have each represented more than 10% of our gross billings in 2015, three clients would have each represented more than 10% of our gross billings in 2016, and three clients would have each represented more than 10% of our gross billings in 2017. Our contractual and billing arrangement with Omnicom Group Inc. is at the holding company level and accounted for 12% of our gross billings in 2015, 13% in 2016 and 11% in 2017. For WPP plc and Publicis Groupe, we enter into separate contracts and billing relationships with various of its individual agencies and account for them as separate clients. We do not have any contractual relationship with the holding company WPP plc or Publicis Groupe. Mindshare, which is affiliated with WPP plc, accounted for 12% of our gross billings in 2015, 11% in 2016 and 10% in 2017. VivaKi, Inc., which is affiliated with Publicis Groupe, accounted for 15% of our gross billings in 2016 and 22% in 2017.

Our clients typically enter into MSAs with us that give users constant access to our platform. The MSAs do not contain any material commitments on behalf of clients to use our platform to purchase ad inventory, data or other features. These MSAs typically have one-year terms that renew automatically for additional one-year periods, unless earlier terminated. The MSAs are typically terminable at any time upon 60 days’ notice by either party.

Our clients are loyal, as reflected by our client retention rate of over 95% in 2015, 2016 and 2017. In addition, our clients typically grow their use of our platform over time.

Our Advertising and Data Inventory Suppliers

For suppliers of programmatic advertising inventory and data, we believe that we are an important business client, as we represent one of the largest sources of buy-side demand within the digital advertising industry.

We obtain digital advertising inventory from over 70 ad exchanges, supply-side platforms, publishers and ad networks, providing us with access to a breadth of programmatic advertising inventory across computers, smartphones, audio devices and CTV. On average each day, our platform provides our clients with access to over 580 billion ad impressions per day, reaching over 430 million devices per day on a global basis.

For third-party data vendors, we believe that we represent an important distribution channel. As of December 31, 2017, we have integrated our platform with over 135 third-party data vendors whose products we make available for purchase through our platform.

Sales and Marketing

Given our self-serve business model, we focus on supporting, advising and training our clients to use our platform independently as soon as they are ready to transact.

Once a new client has access to our platform, they work closely with our client service teams as they onboard the new client and provide continuous support throughout the early campaigns. Typically, once a client has gained some initial experience, it will move to a fully self-serve model and request support as needed.

To help train our clients, suppliers and other digital media participants, we have created an e-learning program called The Trading Academy. We believe that this initiative is an important component in our strategy of enabling rapid onboarding to our platform.

Our marketing efforts are focused on increasing awareness for our brand, executing thought-leadership initiatives, supporting our sales team and generating new leads. We seek to accomplish these objectives by presenting at industry conferences, hosting client conferences, publishing white papers and research, public relations activities, social media presence and advertising campaigns.

Technology and Development

Rapid innovation is a core driver of our business success and our corporate culture. We prioritize and align our product roadmap with our clients’ needs, and we generally refresh our platform on a weekly basis. Our development teams are intentionally lean and nimble in nature, providing for transparency and accountability.

We expect technology and development expense to increase as we continue to invest in the development of our platform to support additional features and functions, increase the number of advertising and data inventory suppliers and ramp up the volume of advertising spending on our platform. We also intend to invest in technology to further automate our business processes. Our technology development expense totaled $12.8 million in 2015, $27.3 million in 2016 and $52.8 million in 2017.

Seasonality

In the advertising industry, companies commonly experience seasonal fluctuations in revenue. For example, many advertisers allocate the largest portion of their budgets to the fourth quarter of the calendar year in order to coincide with increased holiday purchasing. Historically, the fourth quarter of the year reflects our highest level of advertising activity and the first quarter reflects the lowest level of such activity. We expect our revenue to continue to fluctuate based on seasonal factors that affect the advertising industry as a whole.

Our Competition

Our industry is highly competitive and fragmented. We compete with other demand-side platform providers which are mostly smaller, privately-held companies, but we also compete with divisions of large, well-established companies such as Google and Adobe. We believe that we compete primarily based on the performance, capabilities and transparency of our platform and our focus on the buy-side. We generally do not compete with advertising agencies and refrain from directly serving advertisers who have a relationship with one of our advertising agency clients. We believe that we are differentiated from our competitors in the following areas:

In addition, we believe that new entrants would find it difficult to gain direct access to inventory providers, given their limited scale and the costs that additional integrations impose on inventory providers.

Our Employees and Culture

We have employees and offices around the world to serve advertisers’ desire to communicate with consumers worldwide.

Our business and our culture is anchored on four core principles:

We believe we attract talented employees to our company and sophisticated ad buyers to our platform in large part because of our vision and unwavering commitment to empower the buy‑side of advertising.

As of December 31, 2017, we had 713 employees, of whom 502 are in the U.S. Our team draws from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and experiences, across technology, advertising and securities trading and other areas. We foster an entrepreneurial culture so that we may remain focused and innovative over time, as we strive to serve our clients with openness, transparency and humility.

Development of International Markets

We have been increasing our focus on markets outside the U.S. to serve the global needs of our clients. We believe that the global opportunity for programmatic advertising is significant, and should continue to expand as publishers and advertisers outside the U.S. seek to adopt the benefits that programmatic advertising provides. To capitalize on this opportunity, we intend to continue investing in our presence internationally, and we expect our growth internationally to continue outpacing our domestic growth. Our growth and the success of our initiatives in newer markets will depend on the continued adoption of our platform by our existing clients, as well as new clients, in these markets. Information about our geographic gross billings is set forth in Note 12 of “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Intellectual Property

The protection of our technology and intellectual property is an important component of our success. We rely on intellectual property laws, including trade secret, copyright and trademark laws in the U.S. and abroad, and use contracts, confidentiality procedures, non-disclosure agreements, employee disclosure and invention assignment agreements and other contractual rights to protect our intellectual property. We do not hold any patents because we believe our proprietary technology is best protected by keeping our technology architecture, trade secrets, and engineering roadmap private. We believe our platform is difficult to replicate and would be expensive to build. We also believe that a critical protection in digital advertising technology is the ability to execute and deliver new functionality quickly, and are continually developing new intellectual property as we innovate.

Privacy and Data Protection Legislation and Regulation

Privacy and data protection legislation and regulation play a significant role in our business. We and our clients use pseudonymous and anonymous data about Internet users on our platform to manage and execute digital advertising campaigns in a variety of ways, including delivering advertisements to Internet users based on their geographic locations, the type of device they are using, or their interests as inferred from their web browsing or app usage activity, or that clients infer from their relationships with users. We do not use this data to identify specific individuals, and we do not seek to associate this data with information that can be used to identify specific individuals. We take steps not to collect or store personally identifiable information – information that directly identifies individuals – from any source. The definition of what data is personal or identifiable, however, varies by jurisdiction and continues to evolve. As a result, our platform and business practices must be assessed regularly in each jurisdiction where we do business to avoid violating applicable legislation and regulation.

Our ability, like those of other advertising technology companies, to collect, augment, analyze, use and share data collected through cookies and similar technologies is governed by U.S. and foreign laws and regulations which change from time to time, such as those regulating the level of consumer notice and consent required before a company can employ cookies or other electronic tools to collect data about interactions with users online. In the United States, both state and federal legislation govern activities such as the collection and use of data, and privacy in the advertising technology industry has frequently been subject to review by the Federal Trade Commission, or the FTC, U.S. Congress, and individual states. Much of the federal oversight on digital advertising in the United States has come from the FTC, which has primarily relied upon Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits companies from engaging in “unfair” or “deceptive” trade practices, including alleged violations of representations concerning privacy protections and acts that allegedly violate individuals’ privacy interests.

As our business is global, our activities are also subject to foreign legislation and regulation. In the European Union (including the European Economic Area, or EEA, countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), or EU, separate laws and regulations (and member states’ implementations thereof) govern the protection of consumers and of electronic communications, and these laws and regulations continue to evolve. The General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which was adopted by the EU in 2016 and becomes effective May 25, 2018, will generally harmonize data privacy laws across EU countries. The GDPR creates new regulations relating to the collection and use of data typically leveraged on our platform and by others in the digital advertising industry, including IP addresses, cookie identifiers, and device identifiers for advertising purposes, and enhances data protection obligations for controllers of personal data and service providers processing personal data. These enhancements will bring about significant changes in the way the advertising technology industry operates in the EU. Preparing to meet the GDPR’s requirements before it becomes effective, and maintaining compliance with the GDPR thereafter, will require significant time, resources and expense, and significant changes in our business operations.

Additionally in the EU, EU Directive 2002/58/EC (as amended by Directive 2009/136/EC), commonly referred to as the Cookie Directive, directs EU member states to ensure that accessing information on an Internet user’s computer, such as through a cookie and other similar technologies, is allowed only if the Internet user has been informed about such access, and provided consent. A replacement for the Cookie Directive is currently under discussion by EU member states to complement and bring electronic communication services in line with the GDPR and force a harmonized approach across EU member states. Although it remains under debate, recent drafts of the new ePrivacy Regulation would extend the strict opt-in marketing rules with limited exceptions to business-to-business communications, alter rules on third-party cookies, web beacons and similar technology, and significantly increase penalties for non-compliance. We cannot yet determine the impact such future laws, regulations, and standards may have on our business.

For the transfer of personal data from the EU to the U.S., we rely upon, and are currently certified under, the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks. The Privacy Shield Framework, however, is facing criticism from privacy advocates in the EU and is also subject to pending legal challenges in the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Other EU mechanisms for adequate data transfer to the U.S. such as the standard contractual clauses are also being challenged in the EU courts. These challenges to the Privacy Shield and model clauses may lead to changes in the law, governmental enforcement actions, litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. We may find it

necessary to establish systems to maintain personal data originating from the EU in the EU, which may involve substantial expense and may cause us to need to divert resources from other aspects of our business.

In prior years, some government regulators and privacy advocates advocated vigorously for a “Do Not Track” standard that would allow Internet users to express a preference, independent of cookie settings in their browser, not to have their online browsing activities tracked. Efforts in this direction have largely gone dormant. However, in the EU, the Article 29 Working Party, a body made up of EU national data protection authorities, recently recommended that the proposed e-Privacy Regulation require browsers to implement technical mechanisms such as the “Do Not Track” standard to give users additional control over the collection of data about their Internet activity. We do not know whether such requirement will be included in the final e-Privacy Regulation or what effect such requirement may have on our business.

We participate in several industry self-regulatory programs, mainly initiated by the Network Advertising Initiative, or NAI, the Digital Advertising Alliance, or DAA, and their international counterparts. Under such programs, in addition to other compliance obligations, we provide consumers with notice about our use of cookies and similar technologies, and our collection and use of data in connection with the delivery of targeted advertising. We also allow consumers to opt out from the use of data we collect for the delivery of targeted advertising, and we provide consumers notice regarding how to exercise such choice. We believe that this user-centric approach to addressing consumer privacy empowers consumers to make informed decisions on the use of their data.

Available Information

We file Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements, and related amendments and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. You may access and read our filings without charge through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or through our website at http://investors.thetradedesk.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after such materials are electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act.

Website addresses referred to in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are not intended to function as hyperlinks, and the information contained on our website is not incorporated into, and does not form a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report or documents we file with or furnish to the SEC.

Investing in our Class A common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information contained in this annual report, including the consolidated financial statements and the related notes and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, before making investment decisions related to our Class A common stock. If any of the following risks is realized, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We have a limited operating history, which makes it difficult to evaluate our business and prospects and may increase the risks associated with your investment.

We were incorporated in 2009 and, as a result, have only a limited operating history upon which our business and prospects may be evaluated. Although we have experienced substantial revenue growth in our limited operating history, we may not be able to sustain this rate of growth or maintain our current revenue levels. We have encountered and will continue to encounter risks and challenges frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly developing industries, including risks related to our ability to:

We cannot assure you that we will be successful in addressing these and other challenges we may face in the future. If we are unable to do so, our business may suffer, our revenue and operating results may decline and we may not be able to achieve further growth or sustain profitability.

Our failure to maintain and grow our client base and spend through our platform may negatively impact our revenue and business.

To sustain or increase our revenue, we must regularly add new clients and encourage existing clients to maintain or increase the amount of advertising inventory purchased through our platform and adopt new features and functionalities that we add to our platform. If competitors introduce lower cost or differentiated offerings that compete with or are perceived to compete with ours, our ability to sell access to our platform to new or existing clients could be impaired. We have spent significant effort in cultivating our relationships with advertising agencies, which has resulted in an increase in the budgets allocated to, and the amount of advertising purchased on, our platform. However, it is possible that we may reach a point of saturation at which we cannot continue to grow our revenue from such agencies because of internal limits that advertisers may place on the allocation of their advertising budgets to digital media to a particular provider or otherwise. While we generally have master services agreements in place for our clients, such agreements allow our clients to change the amount of spend through our platform or terminate our services with limited notice. Our clients typically have relationships with different providers and there is limited cost to moving budgets to our competitors. As a result, we may have limited visibility as to our future advertising revenue streams. We cannot assure you that our clients will continue to use our platform or that we will be able to replace, in a timely or effective manner, departing clients with new clients that generate comparable revenue. If a major client representing a significant portion of our business decides to materially reduce its use of our platform or to cease using our platform altogether, it is possible that our revenue or revenue growth rate could be significantly reduced and our business negatively impacted.

The loss of advertising agencies as clients could significantly harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our client base consists primarily of advertising agencies. We do not have exclusive relationships with advertising agencies and we depend on agencies to work with us as they embark on advertising campaigns for advertisers.

The loss of agencies as clients could significantly harm our business, operating results and financial condition. If we fail to maintain satisfactory relationships with an advertising agency, we risk losing business from the advertisers represented by that agency.

Advertisers may change advertising agencies. If an advertiser switches from an agency that utilizes our platform to one that does not, we will lose revenue from that advertiser. In addition, some advertising agencies have their own relationships with suppliers of advertising inventory and can directly connect advertisers with such suppliers. Our business may suffer to the extent that advertising agencies and inventory suppliers purchase and sell advertising inventory directly from one another or through intermediaries other than us.

We had approximately 657 clients, consisting primarily of advertising agencies, as of December 31, 2017. Many of these agencies are owned by holding companies, where decision making is decentralized such that purchasing decisions are made, and relationships with advertisers, are located, at the agency, local branch or division level. If all of our individual client contractual relationships were aggregated at the holding company level, Omnicom Group Inc., WPP plc and Publicis Groupe would each represent more than 10% of our gross billings for 2017.

In most cases, we enter into separate contracts and billing relationships with the individual agencies and account for them as separate clients. However, some holding companies for these agencies may choose to exert control over the individual agencies in the future. If so, any loss of relationships with such holding companies and, consequently, of their agencies, local branches or divisions, as clients could significantly harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

If we fail to innovate and make the right investment decisions in our offerings and platform, we may not attract and retain advertisers and advertising agencies and our revenue and results of operations may decline.

Our industry is subject to rapid and frequent changes in technology, evolving client needs and the frequent introduction by our competitors of new and enhanced offerings. We must constantly make investment decisions regarding offerings and technology to meet client demand and evolving industry standards. We may make bad decisions regarding these investments. If new or existing competitors have more attractive offerings, we may lose clients or clients may decrease their use of our platform. New client demands, superior competitive offerings or new industry standards could require us to make unanticipated and costly changes to our platform or business model. If we fail to adapt to our rapidly changing industry or to evolving client needs, demand for our platfor

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None.

We maintain our principal offices in Ventura, California, totaling approximately 25,000 square feet, under two leases that expire in September 2020 and February 2022. We also lease offices in various cities within the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia. We believe that our facilities are adequate to meet our needs for the immediate future and that, should it be needed, we will be able to secure additional space to accommodate expansion of our operations.

We are not currently a party to any legal proceedings, litigation or claims, which, if determined adversely to us, would have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition or cash flows. We may from time to time, be party to litigation and subject to claims incident to the ordinary course of business. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.

Not applicable.

PART II

Our Class A common stock began trading on the NASDAQ Global Market on September 21, 2016 under the symbol “TTD”. Prior to this date, there was no public trading market for our Class A common stock. There is no public trading market for our Class B common stock. The following table sets forth, for the indicated periods, the intraday high and low sales prices per share of our Class A common stock as reported on the NASDAQ Global Market.

Holders of Record

As of January 31, 2018, there were approximately 14 holders of record of our Class A common stock and 46 holders of record of our Class B common stock. The actual number of stockholders is greater than this number of record holders and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees. This number of holders also does not include stockholders whose shares may be held in trust by other entities.

Dividend Policy

We have never declared or paid any dividends on our Class A or Class B common stock, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain any earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business. Any future determination to pay dividends will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will be dependent upon then-existing conditions, including our earnings, capital requirements, results of operations, financial condition, business prospects and other factors that our board of directors considers relevant. See “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” for additional information regarding our financial condition. In addition, our credit facility contains restrictions on our ability to pay dividends.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

None.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

None.

Stock Performance Graph

This performance graph shall not be deemed “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the SEC for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that Section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing of ours under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.

The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return on an initial investment of $100 in our Class A common stock between September 21, 2016 (our initial trading day) and December 31, 2017, with the comparative cumulative total returns of the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index, Russell 2000 Index and NASDAQ 100 Index over the same period. As previously discussed, we have not paid any cash dividends and, therefore, the cumulative total return calculation for us is based solely upon stock price appreciation (depreciation) and not reinvestment of cash dividends, whereas the data for the S&P 500 Index, Russell 2000 Index and NASDAQ 100 Index assumes reinvestments of dividends. The graph assumes the closing market price on September 21, 2016 of $30.10 per share as the initial value of our Class A common stock. The returns shown are based on historical results and are not necessarily indicative of, nor intended to forecast, future stock price performance. For the fiscal year 2017, we added the NASDAQ 100 Index because the companies which comprise the NASDAQ 100 index align with our growing business.

The following tables set forth our selected consolidated financial data for the periods indicated. We have derived the selected consolidated statements of operations data for 2015, 2016, and 2017 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016 and 2017 from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The selected consolidated statements of operations data for 2014 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2014 and 2015 were derived from our audited consolidated financial statements that are not included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

The following selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes appearing in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of our future results.

See Note 10 to our audited consolidated financial statements for more information regarding stock-based compensation expense.

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes to those statements included in Item 8 to this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition to historical financial information, the following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates, beliefs, and expectations, and involve risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include those discussed below and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, particularly in the section titled “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and the “Special Note About Forward-Looking Statements”.

References to “Notes” are notes included in our consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Overview

We are a global technology company that empowers ad buyers by providing a self-service omnichannel software platform that enables our clients to purchase and manage data-driven digital advertising campaigns. Our platform allows clients to manage integrated advertising campaigns across various advertising channels and formats, including connected TV (CTV), mobile, video, audio, display, social and native, on a multitude of devices, including smart TVs, computers, and various mobile devices including phones and tablets.

We commercially launched our platform in 2011 targeting display advertising. We have since extended our platform to address additional advertising formats, and in 2017, approximately 62% of gross spend on our platform was for mobile, video, audio, social, and native.

Our clients are the advertising agencies and other service providers for advertisers, with whom we enter into ongoing master services agreements, or MSAs. We generate revenue by charging our clients a platform fee based on a percentage of a client’s total spend on advertising, data and other features through our platform.

Executive Summary

Highlights

For the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017:

Trends, Opportunities and Challenges

The growing digitization of media and fragmentation of audiences has increased the complexity of advertising, and thereby increased the need for automation in ad buying, which we provide on our platform. In order to grow, we will need to continue to develop our platform’s programmatic capabilities and advertising inventory. We believe that key opportunities include our ongoing global expansion, continuing development of our CTV, native, audio and video ad inventory, and continuing development of our data usage and advertising targeting capabilities.

We believe that growth of the programmatic advertising market is important for our ability to grow our business. Adoption of programmatic advertising by advertisers allows us to acquire new clients and grow revenue from existing clients. Although our clients include some of the largest advertising agencies in the world, we believe there is significant room for us to expand further within these clients and gain a larger amount of their advertising spend through our platform. We also believe that the industry trends noted above will lead to advertisers adopting programmatic advertising through platforms such as ours.

Similarly, the adoption of programmatic advertising by inventory owners and content providers allows us to expand the volume and type of advertising inventory that we present to our clients. For example, we have expanded our CTV, native and audio advertising offerings through our recent integrations with supply-side partners.

We plan to invest for long-term growth. We anticipate that our operating expenses will increase significantly in the foreseeable future as we invest in platform operations and technology and development to enhance our product features, including programmatic buying of CTV ad inventory, and in sales and marketing to acquire new clients and reinforce our relationships with existing clients. In addition, we expect to continue making investments in our infrastructure, including our information technology, financial and administrative systems and controls, to support our operations.

In addition, we believe the markets outside of the U.S. offer an opportunity for growth, and we intend to make additional investments in sales and marketing and product development to expand in these markets, including China, where we are making significant investments in launching our platform and growing our team.

We believe that these investments will contribute to our long-term growth, although they may negatively impact profitability in the near term.

Our business model has allowed us to grow significantly, and we believe that our operating leverage enables us to support future growth profitably.

Factors Affecting Our Performance

Growth in and Retention of Client Spend

Our recent growth has been driven by expanding our share of spend by our existing clients and adding new clients. Our clients include some of the largest advertising agencies in the world, and we believe there is significant room for us to expand further within these clients. As a result, future revenue growth depends upon our ability to retain our existing clients and to gain a larger amount of their advertising spend through our platform.

In order to analyze the contribution to the growth of our business driven by the increase in gross spend from existing clients, we measure annual gross spend for the set of clients, or cohort, that commenced spending on our platform in a specific year relative to subsequent periods. The gross spend from each of our cohorts has increased over subsequent periods. However, over time we will likely lose clients from each cohort, clients may spend less on our platform and the growth rate of gross spend may change. Any such change could have a significant negative impact on gross spend and operating results.

Ability to Expand our Omnichannel Reach, Including CTV and Digital Radio

We enable the purchase of advertising inventory in a wide variety of formats. Although display advertising represented 38% of our gross spend in 2017, non-display advertising such as mobile, video and social are significant and increasing components of our gross spend. Our future growth will depend on our ability to maintain and grow the inventory of, and spend on, other channels. In addition, we believe that our ability to integrate and offer CTV and digital radio advertising inventory for purchase through our platform, and in particular our ability to manage the increased costs that will accompany these purchases, will impact the future growth of our business.

Growth of the Programmatic Advertising Market

Our operating results and prospects will be impacted by the overall adoption of programmatic advertising by inventory owners and content providers, as well as advertisers and the agencies and service providers that represent them. Programmatic advertising has grown rapidly in recent years, and any acceleration, or slowing, of this growth would affect our operating and financial performance. In addition, even if the programmatic advertising market continues to grow at its current rate, our ability to position ourselves within the market will impact the future growth of our business.

Development of International Markets

We have been increasing our focus on markets outside the U.S. to serve the global needs of our clients. We believe that the global opportunity for programmatic advertising is significant due to the growing middle class abroad, and should continue to expand as publishers and advertisers outside the U.S. seek to adopt the benefits that programmatic advertising provides. To capitalize on this oppor

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We have operations both within the U.S. and internationally, and we are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of our business. These risks include primarily interest rate, foreign currency exchange and inflation risks.

Interest Rate Risk

We are exposed to market risk from changes in interest rates on our credit facility, which accrues interest at a variable rate. We have not used any derivative financial instruments to manage our interest rate risk exposure. Based upon the principal balance owed on our revolving credit facility as of December 31, 2017, a hypothetical one percentage point increase or decrease in the interest rate under our revolving credit facility would result in a corresponding increase or decrease in interest expense of approximately $0.3 million annually.

Foreign Currency Exchange Risk

We have foreign currency risks related to our revenue and expenses denominated in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar, principally the Euro, the Canadian Dollar, British Pound, Australian Dollar, Japanese Yen and Indonesian Rupiah. The volatility of exchange rates depends on many factors that we cannot forecast with reliable accuracy. We have experienced and will continue to experience fluctuations in our net income as a result of transaction gains and losses related to translating cash balances, trade accounts receivable and payable balances that are denominated in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar. The effect of an immediate 10% adverse change in foreign exchange rates on foreign-denominated accounts at December 31, 2017, would result in a foreign currency loss of approximately $9.2 million. In the event our non-U.S. Dollar denominated sales and expenses increase, our operating results may be more greatly affected by fluctuations in the exchange rates of the currencies in which we do business.

From time to time we may enter into forward contracts or other derivative transactions in an attempt to hedge our foreign currency risk. There can be no assurance that such transactions will be effective in hedging some or all of our foreign currency exposures and under some circumstances could generate losses for us.

Inflation Risk

We do not believe that inflation has had a material effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. If our costs were to become subject to significant inflationary pressures, we might not be able to fully offset such higher costs through price increases. Our inability or failure to do so could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

THE TRADE DESK, INC.

INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

The supplementary financial information required by this Item 8 is included in Item 7 under the caption “Quarterly Results of Operations,” which is incorporated herein by reference.

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of The Trade Desk, Inc.

Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of The Trade Desk, Inc. and its subsidiaries as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, and the related consolidated statements of operations, of convertible preferred stock and stockholders’ equity (deficit) and of cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2017, including the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). We also have audited the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2017 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the Company did not maintain, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the COSO because a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting related to an absence of information technology general controls over certain financially significant applications existed as of that date.

A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The material weakness referred to above is described in Management's Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting appearing under Item 9A. We considered this material weakness in determining the nature, timing, and extent of audit tests applied in our audit of the 2017 consolidated financial statements, and our opinion regarding the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting does not affect our opinion on those consolidated financial statements.

Basis for Opinions

The Company's management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting included in management's report referred to above. Our responsibility is to express opinions on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and on the Company's internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) ("PCAOB") and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

/s/ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Los Angeles, California

February 27, 2018

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2015.

THE TRADE DESK, INC.

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(In thousands, except par values)

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None.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”), evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), as of December 31, 2017. Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to provide reasonable assurance that information we are required to disclose in the reports we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our CEO and CFO, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosures, and is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Based on this evaluation, our CEO and CFO have concluded that, due to the material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting as described below, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective at the reasonable assurance level as of December 31, 2017.

Our management, including our CEO and CFO, has concluded that, notwithstanding the material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, the consolidated financial statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K fairly present, in all material respects, our financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented in conformity with U.S. GAAP.

Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act. Our internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of our financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

Management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017 using the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission in Internal Control—Integrated Framework (2013). Based on its assessment, our management, including our CEO and CFO, has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2017 due to a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting resulting from an absence of information technology general controls (“ITGCs”) over certain financially significant applications. These control deficiencies resulted in an immaterial adjustment which was identified and corrected in the same period. Additionally, these control deficiencies could impact the effectiveness of information technology dependent controls which could result in material misstatements of the consolidated financial statements and disclosures that would not be prevented or detected. Accordingly, our management has determined that these control deficiencies constitute a material weakness.

A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017 has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report, which appears in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Completion of Remediation Measures

During the quarter ended December 31, 2017, we completed the remediation measures including the validation, testing of the design and concluding on the operating effectiveness of our controls related to the following previously reported material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting:

\

Remediation In Progress

Regarding the previously reported material weakness resulting from the absence of ITGCs over certain financially significant applications, during the quarter ended December 31, 2017, we completed the remediation measures including validation, testing of the design and concluding on the operating effectiveness of ITGCs over our financially significant applications, with the exception of our platform system applications as discussed below.

We have not completed the remediation measures related to certain ITGCs over our platform system applications as of December 31, 2017. Certain ITGCs related to our platform system applications were not fully implemented or have not been in place for a sufficient period of time to adequately evaluate whether the related material weakness has been completely remediated as of December 31, 2017. During the quarter ended December 31, 2017, we implemented certain controls over our platform system applications related to restricted access and change management.

These internal controls will require further evaluation, including testing the operating effectiveness of these internal controls over a sustained period of financial reporting cycles.

The actions that we are taking are subject to ongoing review by our management, including our CEO and CFO, as well as audit committee oversight. As we continue to evaluate and work to remediate the control deficiencies that gave rise to the material weakness, we may also conclude that additional measures may be required to remediate the material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, which may necessitate additional time. We will continue to assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and take steps to remediate our material weakness expeditiously.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

During the quarter ended December 31, 2017, we implemented certain controls over our platform system applications related to restricted access and change management that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls

Management recognizes that a control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud or error, if any, have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of a simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people, or by management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls also is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions; over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

None.

PART III

The information required by this item in our proxy statement relating to our 2018 annual meeting of stockholders to be filed by us with the Securities and Exchange Commission no later than 120 days after the close of our fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 (the "Proxy Statement") and is incorporated herein by reference.

We have a code of business ethics and conduct that applies to all of our employees, including our Principal Executive Officer, Principal Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer, and our Board of Directors. A copy of this code, "Code of Business Conduct and Ethics", is available on our website at http://investors.thetradedesk.com. We intend to satisfy the disclosure requirement under Item 5.05 of Form 8-K regarding amendment to, or waiver from, a provision of our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics by posting such information on our investor relations website under the heading "Leadership & Governance" at http://investors.thetradedesk.com.

The information required by this item will be included in the Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

The information required by this item will be included in the Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

The information required by this item will be included in the Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

The information required by this item will be included in the Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

PART IV

(a) We have filed the following documents as part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K:

1. Consolidated Financial Statements

See Index to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 herein.

2. Financial Statement Schedules

No financial statement schedules are provided because the information called for is not required or is shown in the financial statements of the notes thereto.

3. Exhibits

Exhibits required to be filed as part of this report are:

None.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this Annual Report on Form 10-K to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in Ventura, California, on the 27th day of February, 2018.

POWER OF ATTORNEY

KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Jeff T. Green and Paul E. Ross, jointly and severally, as his or her true and lawful attorneys-in-fact and agents, with full power of substitution and resubstitution, for him or her and in his or her name, place and stead, in any and all capacities, to sign any and all amendments to this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorneys-in-fact and agents, and each of them, full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite and necessary to be done in connection therewith, as fully to all intents and purposes as he or she might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and confirming that all said attorneys-in-fact and agents, or any of them or their or his or her substitute or substitutes, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this Annual Report on Form 10-K has been signed by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated: