diff --git a/dd-trace/dd-trace.gradle b/dd-trace/dd-trace.gradle
index fab294080c..9b39533509 100644
--- a/dd-trace/dd-trace.gradle
+++ b/dd-trace/dd-trace.gradle
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ whitelistedInstructionClasses += whitelistedBranchClasses += [
   'com.datadoghq.trace.DDTags',
   'com.datadoghq.trace.DDTraceInfo',
   'com.datadoghq.trace.util.Clock',
-
 ]
 
 dependencies {
@@ -29,6 +28,7 @@ dependencies {
   compile group: 'com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat', name: 'jackson-dataformat-yaml', version: '2.8.8'
   compile group: 'org.slf4j', name: 'slf4j-api', version: '1.7.25'
   compile group: 'com.google.auto.service', name: 'auto-service', version: '1.0-rc3'
+  compile group: 'org.msgpack', name: 'jackson-dataformat-msgpack', version: '0.8.13'
 
   testCompile group: 'ch.qos.logback', name: 'logback-classic', version: '1.2.3'
 
diff --git a/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/writer/DDApi.java b/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/writer/DDApi.java
index 3db98b6499..4d861a3087 100644
--- a/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/writer/DDApi.java
+++ b/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/writer/DDApi.java
@@ -3,16 +3,15 @@ package com.datadoghq.trace.writer;
 import com.datadoghq.trace.DDBaseSpan;
 import com.datadoghq.trace.DDTraceInfo;
 import com.datadoghq.trace.Service;
-import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonFactory;
-import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonGenerator;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
+import java.io.OutputStream;
 import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import lombok.extern.slf4j.Slf4j;
+import org.msgpack.jackson.dataformat.MessagePackFactory;
 
 /** The API pointing to a DD agent */
 @Slf4j
@@ -24,8 +23,7 @@ public class DDApi {
   private final String tracesEndpoint;
   private final String servicesEndpoint;
 
-  private final ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
-  private final JsonFactory jsonFactory = objectMapper.getFactory();
+  private final ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper(new MessagePackFactory());
 
   public DDApi(final String host, final int port) {
     this.tracesEndpoint = "http://" + host + ":" + port + TRACES_ENDPOINT;
@@ -72,7 +70,6 @@ public class DDApi {
   /**
    * PUT to an endpoint the provided JSON content
    *
-   * @param endpoint
    * @param content
    * @return the status code
    */
@@ -86,11 +83,10 @@ public class DDApi {
     }
 
     try {
-      final OutputStreamWriter out = new OutputStreamWriter(httpCon.getOutputStream());
-      final JsonGenerator jsonGen = jsonFactory.createGenerator(out);
-      objectMapper.writeValue(jsonGen, content);
-      jsonGen.flush();
-      jsonGen.close();
+      final OutputStream out = httpCon.getOutputStream();
+      objectMapper.writeValue(out, content);
+      out.flush();
+      out.close();
       final int responseCode = httpCon.getResponseCode();
       if (responseCode == 200) {
         log.debug("Sent the payload to the DD agent.");
@@ -113,7 +109,7 @@ public class DDApi {
     httpCon = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
     httpCon.setDoOutput(true);
     httpCon.setRequestMethod("PUT");
-    httpCon.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/json");
+    httpCon.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/msgpack");
     httpCon.setRequestProperty("Datadog-Meta-Lang", "java");
     httpCon.setRequestProperty("Datadog-Meta-Lang-Version", DDTraceInfo.JAVA_VERSION);
     httpCon.setRequestProperty("Datadog-Meta-Lang-Interpreter", DDTraceInfo.JAVA_VM_NAME);