The Commerce Desk has been public about wanting all customers emigrate to the brand new Kokai person interface for its DSP by the tip of this 12 months.
It’s what CEO Jeff Inexperienced informed buyers in February.
However yeah, that’s not gonna occur.
Kokai adoption has been slower than the corporate anticipated, which signifies that its legacy interface, Solimar, gained’t be deprecated within the close to future.
Rumors had been swirling that TTD would quickly announce plans to deprecate Solimar in an effort to push customers to undertake Kokai.
Some advertisers even declare their TTD account reps teased the corporate’s plan to sundown Solimar as rapidly as attainable. AdExchanger has heard from a number of company sources who say TTD reps informed them that Solimar shall be phased out beginning in Q3 and that TTD will disallow the creation of recent campaigns in Solimar beginning in August.
However, in line with a supply near The Commerce Desk with direct data, it presently has no concrete plans to deprecate Solimar in any respect. It’s nonetheless TTD’s intention to part Solimar out as soon as all patrons have moved over to Kokai, the supply added, however full Kokai adoption would require extra time, and it’s unclear precisely how a lot.
The earlier plan to achieve full Kokai adoption by the tip of 2025 is unsure, this supply stated, as a result of a few of Kokai’s options are nonetheless being developed.
In different phrases, Solimar is right here to remain for now.
Eye on Kokai
Phasing out Solimar now “doesn’t make sense,” stated the supply near TTD, as a result of a number of TTD shoppers are nonetheless utilizing it. TTD “wouldn’t [stop] shoppers who’re nonetheless utilizing Solimar,” they stated, “as a result of that might be detrimental to enterprise and likewise present shoppers and campaigns.”
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On high of that, various TTD shoppers use each Solimar and Kokai for various functions, the supply added, and TTD needs to proceed to offer that flexibility in the interim. TTD is “retaining Solimar round till everybody feels comfy with Kokai,” they stated.
In addition to, some Kokai options should not prepared for primetime but, the supply stated. For instance, Kokai’s Deal Desk curation resolution that enables sell-side corporations to bundle stock into deal IDs is just coming into beta testing this quarter – that means it’ll clearly want extra time to bake.
Plus, This autumn is simply across the nook, the supply stated, which might be a horrible time to power everybody over to a brand new and partially untested interface. TTD “doesn’t need shoppers to must be taught an entire new interface on the busiest time of the 12 months,” they stated.
For all these causes, the supply stated, TTD will not be “deprecating Solimar or stopping shoppers from utilizing it.”
Say it ain’t Solimar
Briefly, regardless of rumors on the contrary, Solimar won’t be phased out in Q3 and TTD gained’t be disabling the creation of recent campaigns in Solimar by subsequent month.
So why do some company sources declare to have been informed by TTD account reps that Solimar shall be imminently phased out or disabled for brand new campaigns?
It’s attainable that these account reps are utilizing “a gross sales tactic” to spice up Kokai adoption by suggesting Solimar will quickly now not be viable, the supply near TTD stated. The Commerce Desk didn’t reply to AdExchanger’s request to make clear whether or not its gross sales or account reps obtain incentives for reinforcing Kokai adoption.
So, if businesses are listening to in any other case from their account reps, then it seems these reps should not in alignment with The Commerce Desk’s firm line.
Nonetheless, the supply near TTD identified that the corporate’s Q3 earnings name is arising on August 7, noting that it’s solely attainable we’ll hear about new plans for Kokai and Solimar at the moment.
So keep tuned.
