• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, August 13, 2013

The Trade Desk, a real-time bidding (RTB) demand-side platform (DSP), has opened up an office in Hamburg, Germany, which will serve as their Central European headquarters. The new office is the company's second international location, the first being a London office which opened earlier this year. The new Central European hub will "serve as a sales and business center for clients based in Europe, with campaigns running globally," the company wrote in a release.

The Ventura-based DSP claims to be opening up the German office in response to client needs. "We have been privileged to serve international agency clients since our earlier days in RTB, and it's to the credit of our strong partners in Europe that we are now able to build up our staffing there," stated Jeff Green, CEO of The Trade Desk.

The German market doesn't receive an abundance of attention in the U.S., but it has not shied away from ad tech and RTB. Germany is one of only six countries which make up two-thirds of the RTB market (the others being U.S., UK, Brazil, France, and Canada, per Accordant Media). Sales-side companies like PubMatic already have a presence in Germany, so there is room for DSPs.

A June RTB Insider, titled "The Culture Question In RTB," wrote of the market: "In Germany, all major e-commerce players run RTB campaigns that are largely performance-based. Advertisers rely on efficient technology partners to run these campaigns, measured by defined KPIs and sophisticated attribution models. Reliability and flexibility are critical for vendors as speed and response rates -- translating into gains through volume and ROI -- are highly important to customers." The same article also noted that the RTB market in Central and Eastern Europe "remains largely in an education phase."

A second RTB Insider piece, written by Green himself, spelled out how Europe can leapfrog the U.S. in RTB and how the German market can lead that charge. Green said in the release, "We are pleased to be on the ground in Hamburg, and we look forward to being part of the strong marketing industry growth in Germany."