Trade Desk Faces Kokai Growing Pains As Amazon Threatens Ad Budgets
January 24, 2026
- The Trade Desk (NasdaqGM:TTD) is moving clients to its new AI powered Kokai platform, with some advertisers leaving the platform during the transition.
- The shift comes as Amazon pushes further into programmatic ad buying and acquires Microsoft’s advertising platform, increasing competitive pressure.
- These changes raise questions about The Trade Desk’s ability to retain ad budgets and maintain pricing power in digital advertising.
The Trade Desk runs a demand side platform that helps advertisers buy digital ad inventory across channels such as connected TV, online video and display. The company is currently rolling out Kokai, its next generation AI powered platform, at the same time that programmatic advertising continues to attract more ad budgets. In this context, Amazon is expanding its own ad buying tools, which could make the competitive field more crowded for NasdaqGM:TTD.
For you as an investor, the key issues are client retention during the Kokai rollout and how much share large integrated players like Amazon might capture. The Trade Desk’s execution on product migration, data tools and advertiser relationships will be important factors in how its position in digital advertising develops from here.
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Why Trade Desk could be great value
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Quick Assessment
- ✅ Price vs Analyst Target: At US$36.55 versus a consensus target of US$57.76, the price sits roughly one third below where analysts, on average, see value.
- ✅ Simply Wall St Valuation: Simply Wall St’s model flags the shares as undervalued, trading about 64.4% below its estimated fair value.
- ❌ Recent Momentum: The 30 day return of roughly 4.1% decline points to weak short term sentiment as Kokai transition issues and Amazon’s push into ad buying weigh on the stock.
Check out Simply Wall St’s
in depth valuation analysis for Trade Desk.
Key Considerations
- 📊 Kokai’s slow rollout and advertiser churn directly test The Trade Desk’s ability to hold spend against large integrated rivals such as Amazon.
- 📊 Keep an eye on advertiser retention, take up of Kokai, and any commentary on competitive pressure from Amazon’s ad tools and the Microsoft platform acquisition.
- ⚠️ The key risk is that more budgets shift to Amazon if Kokai adoption stays slow, which could hurt pricing power and future profitability.
Dig Deeper
For the full picture including more risks and rewards, check out the
complete Trade Desk analysis.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data
and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your
financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data.
Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.
Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Valuation is complex, but we’re here to simplify it.
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