Challenge
Yahoo sought assistance in developing and maintaining a high-performance Real-Time Bidding (RTB) platform, an important tool in the competitive adtech market. The platform required ultra-low latency, high scalability, and efficient cost management to handle a very large volume of traffic—up to 1.5 million bid requests per second. With such a high volume and strict real-time requirements, the client needed a solution capable of adapting to rapid changes in demand and maximizing revenue while controlling costs.
Solution
We provided technical leadership and software development to transform the Real-Time Bidding (RTB) platform to handle rapid adtech growth. Our work began with migrating the on-premise infrastructure to a cloud-native environment, enabling greater scalability and cost-efficiency. By re-engineering services for the cloud and using Erlang and Java, we optimized the platform to process up to 1.5 million bid requests per second with minimal latency, scaling seamlessly across multiple global data centers.
We also integrated machine learning models to enhance revenue through optimized bidding strategies, allowing real-time adjustments that align with market conditions. A DevOps and CI/CD approach empowered the client’s teams to release updates multiple times daily, reducing technical debt and boosting platform agility. System observability was further strengthened with custom metrics, dashboards, and alerting, which enabled proactive monitoring of performance and stability.
Results
The platform transformation achieved critical goals, including substantial cost savings from cloud scalability, increased revenue from machine learning-based bidding optimizations, and improved system reliability through DevOps practices. The platform, now spanning hundreds of machines across four global regions, supports millions in daily transactions and has driven “double-digit growth” for Yahoo in the highly competitive RTB market.