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Data aggregation is how the Terminal built its user-base, but messaging is what actually keeps people there. Bloomberg Chat is where most large trades get nego
by evrydayhustling 8y ago
Data aggregation is how the Terminal built its user-base, but messaging is what actually keeps people there. Bloomberg Chat is where most large trades get negotiated -- so if you don't have a login, you don't really have an identity as a trader. Makes it hard to switch.
It's a terrific example of network effect as moat. Several years ago, six of the largest banks got together to fund Symphony as a Bloomberg-killing chat tool [1]. More than $100M invested later, it's still only successfully competing with Bloomberg for internal chat at financial firms [2]. Inter-company chats are still happening mainly on full price terminals that costs 100x what Symphony costs for a seat.
[1] https://symphony.com/press/releases/consortium-leading-financial-firms-invest-new-communication-workflow-platform https://symphony.com/press/releases/consortium-leading-finan...
[2] https://www.ft.com/content/f16d73ee-a910-11e7-ab55-27219df83c97 https://www.ft.com/content/f16d73ee-a910-11e7-ab55-27219df83...
- simonbyrne 8y agoAn interesting exception is the energy sector, which used Yahoo Messenger until it was shutdown: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-traders-yahoo-idUSKCN10J0SO https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-traders-yahoo-idUSKCN...
- stevesimmons 8y agoAh, thank you for that explanation. I used to work at a Commodities trading business. I never understood before why Yahoo Messenger was part of their standard Win desktop build. My Precious Metals desk never used it. Makes sense, though, if it was for the energy traders in Houston.
- ren01r 8y agoI'm curious what they use now.
- vostok 8y agoICE Chat and Cloud 9 come to mind. In general it's going to vary from product to product.
- evrydayhustling 8y agoWhatsApp is huge. It's an international market and end end encryption is valued.
- vostok 8y agoMy firm prohibits whatsapp for business use and I know it's not the only one.
- evrydayhustling 8y agoYes it's a compliance nightmare. Context for my WhatsApp comment is SE Asian market if that makes a difference. Also curious if prohibitions are effective or if people still negotiate on other channels and then document on official one.
- kgwgk 8y ago> messaging is what actually keeps people there. May be true for some people. There are hundreds of thousands of users, I have no idea how many are chat-dependent traders but surely not all of them.