Trade Desk stock is down 20% in the two days after Google’s policy update

Advertising technology company Trade Desk shares have fallen 20 percent since Tuesday’s close after Google issued its latest guidance on Wednesday on its promise not to use technologies that track people individually on the Internet.

Trade Desk shares fell 8% on Thursday, rising 20.4% lower on Wednesday than Tuesday’s close.

Trade Desk technology helps brands and agencies reach their target audiences in all media formats and devices. The company also led the formation of Unified ID 2.0, which will rely on email addresses as a basis for unique identifiers to help target ads to individuals. (Email addresses themselves are hidden.) Trade Desk has painted the identifier as a superior alternative to cookies, which Google intends not to accept in the Chrome browser until 2022.

But Google’s post on Wednesday warned against solutions “such as PII graphics based on people’s email addresses.” The post said: “We do not believe that these solutions will meet consumers’ growing expectations for privacy, nor will they withstand rapidly evolving regulatory constraints and are therefore not a long-term sustainable investment.”

This probably raises questions about the future of these identifiers.

Google said its post was about how its own advertising products will work and will not restrict what third parties do in Chrome for the time being. But Google could theoretically restrict this activity on Chrome in the future.

KeyBanc analysts said in a note that restricting alternative identifiers from Google products would “clearly favor Google over the open internet and is an interesting dilemma for regulators – how should consumer privacy be balanced with market power?”

In a blog post on Thursday afternoon, Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green said he sent dozens of calls about what Google posting means to his company and the open internet. “Not much has changed,” he wrote. “But what has changed will eventually turn out to be positive.”

“With this ad, Google is doubling its own properties, such as search and YouTube, and adding bricks to the walls around those properties,” Green wrote. “The difference is that Google no longer values ​​advertising on the rest of the Internet – certainly not as much as it used to.”

Other advertising technology colleagues have also dropped dramatically since Wednesday morning’s announcement. PubMatic stock was down 27.5%, Magnit was down 21.5%, Viant was down 17.2%, LiveRamp was down 14.7%, and Criteo was down 7.8% since closing. Tuesday.

The declines also come amid a decline in Nasdaq Composite technology, which fell more than 2% on Thursday afternoon.

Some analysts said their views on stocks in the sector did not change after Wednesday’s post. BMO downgraded LiveRamp, noting that it is “too hot in the kitchen” and also raising its target price on Criteo.