Bloomberg is reportedly unbundling chat services from its desktop terminal subscriptions, instead charging clients a flat $10 a month per user in an effort to combat the threat posed by messaging rival Symphony.
Symphony was created by some of Wall Street's biggest banks in response to a snooping scandal at Bloomberg back in 2013. The $20-a-month rival messaging service has since amassed over 200,000 subscribers in an effort to become the de facto social network for trader communications.
The Financial Times reports that Bloomberg is now fighting back, with plans to roll out a cut-price intra-firm chat-only package, Enterprise IB, available to any firm with at least one Bloomberg Professional terminal installed.
Bloomberg had previously offered chat as a value added part of its expensive proprietary desktop package, which has seen a drop in use as banks cut back on financial data costs.
According to figures from analysts Burton-Taylor, Bloomberg last year saw its terminal user base shrink for only the second time in its 36-year history.
Bloomberg accounted for 33.40% of market share as a result of growth in its data feed and other non-terminal business. At the same time, terminal counts shrank by 3,145 for only the second time in company history.
Users typically pay an annual fee of between $20,000-$25,000 for the privilege of running a single proprietary Bloomberg machine, with the terminal subscriber base standing at 325,000 in October 2016.