Other buy-side firms made similar decisions under the logic that buying via open bidding just duplicates the ad inventory that demand-side platforms already get from header bidding, ADWEEK reported in 2022. According to these firms, Open Bidding increases processing costs, and tacks on a fee.
In response to Dederick’s testimony, Google’s counsel brought up that within Google ads products, header bidding impressions have risen.
Dederick stood by his statement. Dederick also testified that The Trade Desk is not as competitive as Google in display advertising because of Google’s market power.
Dederick’s statement conflicts with The Trade Desk’s recent public statements that the company’s access to open web inventory puts it in a superior position to tech giants like Google. In May, The Trade Desk published a report ranking the top 500 publishers. “Consumers now spend the majority of their time outside these Big Tech walled gardens—increasingly preferring the best of the open internet,” The Trade Desk wrote in the report.
Google’s counsel referenced The Trade Desk’s recent report in cross-examination, but the report wasn’t able to be used as evidence because it was released too recently to be included in the time frame for evidence to be used.
Elsewhere, Jeff Green, The Trade Desk CEO and a longtime Google critic, spoke at an ad industry conference this week, saying that Google’s ad business should be broken up, Business Insider reported.