What’s behind Bloomberg’s chat strategy

Mark Melin of Valuewalk writes about Bloomberg’s chat strategy on its terminal.

Melin writes, “Financial technology and media company Bloomberg is extending its terminal chat capabilities amid what is being characterized as a fight with Silicon Valley rival Symphony. But the new chat service might not [be] an unbundling as much as it serves the purpose to make Bloomberg technology a more integral component of Terminal user lives.

“The chat service is not available to the general public, just to firms that have Terminal subscriptions, a Bloomberg source told ValueWalk. The Enterprise IB initiative is an extension of a program the firm first launched in 2013.

“The move comes as the challenge from Symphony, characterized as a ‘Bloomberg killer,’ is reported to have ramped up 235,000 paid subscribers. Other analysts, however, downplay the potential for Symphony to compete against the core of the Terminal’s technical reach.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.