Retail giant Amazon is reportedly preparing to launch a cloud-based header bidding solution for publishers as part of its Amazon Web Services offering.

According to Ad Age, which cites people familiar with the matter, the solution could be launched as early as next week, and will see Amazon entering one of the fastest growing and most important areas of ad tech.

The popularity of header bidding has grown dramatically over the past 12 months, as publishers adopt the technology with the aim of increasing their revenues. Header bidding enables publishers to take multiple offers for ads simultaneously, driving up competition between DSPs and, in theory, fighting back against the stranglehold Google has on many ad sales.

The entry of Amazon into the header bidding space introduces a very potent new rival to Google and Facebook. One of header biddings flaws is its tendency to slow down page load times, although new developments called header bidding wrappers have helped mitigate this.

Amazons solution wont use this technology, but its cloud-based feature will offer similar advantages. Ad requests will be handled on Amazons cloud servers instead of within consumers browsers, as will the auction process for ad space, all of which should speed up loading times for pages.

Header bidding is a form of programmatic, which is set for double-digit growth rates over the next few years according to eMarketer predctions, and already accounts for over 70 per cent of display ad spending, so Amazons investment in the technology is a wise choice.