Can the Bloomberg Terminal be "Toppled"?

Re:Can the Bloomberg Terminal be "Toppled"? by fsk on Wednesday March 19, 2014 @05:00PM (#7431815)

First, Bloomberg's code base represents decades of cumulative institutional knowledge. That's both the downside (it looks 30 years old) and the upside (it's been thoroughly tested and users know what to expect).

Second, for Bloomberg's target customers (big banks, big traders, big hedge funds), the price is just noise in their budget. If you had a "cheaper" Bloomberg clone, you might get more customers but less total revenue. The people who have been trading for 10+ years and know Bloomberg terminal by heart will still want a Bloomberg terminal.

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Re:Can the Bloomberg Terminal be "Toppled"? by mattturck on Wednesday March 19, 2014 @05:09PM (#7431873)

Yes on both. The second point is particularly interesting, and counter-intuitive. There's something about the necessary learning curve to figure out how to use a Bloomberg terminal that makes it sticky. People end up viewing knowing how to navigate the terminal as part of their professional skillset. Of course, that probably only works as long as there's no serious enough alternative in sight.

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