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Trade Desk opens Audience Unlimited to put data back in the driver’s seat
MUMBAI: For years, third-party data in digital advertising has been like the pricey side dish everyone admired but few ordered. Now, The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) is serving it up in a new format Audience Unlimited, an AI-powered marketplace upgrade designed to make precision targeting cheaper, smarter, and easier.
Traditionally, advertisers who dared to dip into third-party data often forked out nearly 20 per cent of their media costs on it, only to wrestle with the uncertainty of which segments were worth the spend. Audience Unlimited aims to sweep away those hurdles by scoring thousands of curated data segments from hundreds of privacy-conscious providers, then offering them in bulk at transparent, inclusive pricing.
“Audience Unlimited is going to transform the way marketers think about the value and cost of third-party data,” said The Trade Desk chief strategy officer Samantha Jacobson. “By securing bulk pricing for data, we can pass on savings to advertisers, while our AI helps them understand relevance and layer in as much as they need to optimise performance.”
The upgrade isn’t just about cheaper data. It’s tied to new Koa Adaptive Trading Modes, powered by agentic AI, that let advertisers pick their level of automation:
● Performance Mode: Koa acts as a full co-pilot, dynamically optimising bids, allocations and performance across The Trade Desk’s suite of innovations, from Audience Unlimited to Predictive Clearing and Identity Alliance. Here, Audience Unlimited is included at no extra cost.
● Control Mode: Traders take the wheel, manually managing campaigns but still benefiting from AI recommendations. Here, Audience Unlimited comes at a tiered cost of 3.3 per cent or 4.4 per cent of impression spend, with the option to use a la carte data pricing.
Early adopters are already buzzing. Dstillery CEO Michael Beebe said, “By embedding AI-powered audience selection directly into campaign strategy, it transforms data from an afterthought into a core driver of performance.”
Liveramp SVP of commercial partnerships Anne Acker echoed the sentiment, “Solutions like Audience Unlimited take the guesswork out of building high-quality segments. With AI in the mix, marketers can extract even more value and efficiency.”
Audience Unlimited and Koa Adaptive Trading Modes will roll out to select agencies on The Trade Desk’s Kokai platform in late 2025, with a full launch in early 2026.
If third-party data once felt like a gamble, The Trade Desk is betting that with AI scoring, predictable pricing, and flexibility, advertisers will now treat it as the ace up their sleeve.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
