The Trade Desk, a demand-side platform (DSP), has officially launched its programmatic advertising offering in China. The DSP first entered the China market back in November 2018 with a beta launch, and partnered with Baidu and its streaming services, as well as Tencent and Youku, the Alibaba-owned video platform. The partnerships will give The Trade Desk partner agencies and brands access to premium inventory across various Chinese media and formats.

In addition to its programmatic offerings, The Trade Desk has also built a creative approval team in China and plans to hire in-market for its product, engineering and partnership teams. The company is also joining forces with Chinese companies like Adbug and RTBAsia to minimize and protect advertisers from fraud and ensure brand safety. Viewability, another major concern, is being looked at and will be addressed in the near future.

The Trade Desk will offer inventory across desktop, tablet and mobile. However, mobile will lead the charge in mobile-first China given that Tencent Video saw 137 million daily users on their mobile platform in 2018. WeChat, owned by Tencent, earns more than 1 billion monthly users. The implications to advertisers are that their creative will need to be designed for mobile, especially mobile video. And native formats should be integrated into messenger apps.

The Trade Desk’s finalization of its foray into China is only the beginning for the company. They see China to be a major focus throughout 2019. It is estimated that China will be the largest advertising region in the world by 2022. It is also estimated that its media spend will grow at around 14% per year, which is about twice as fast as growth seen in the U. S.