UMT Maker (6): Bloomberg uses “data” to connect the financial world
——Exclusive interview with Huang Yiquan, General Manager of Bloomberg China
[Editor’s note]In 1981, an unemployed young man named MichaelBloomberg, founded a company called Innovative Market Systems on Wall Street (later renamed Bloomberg). Thirty years later, the company has 192 branches and more than 15,500 employees around the world. In 2014, Bloomberg LP's global operating revenue reached US$9 billion, making it the world's largest financial information service provider. Undoubtedly, Bloomberg's success provides an important observation window for young people who are determined to start their own businesses. From "makers", academia, and then to the industry, the Huiyuan Voice University Maker Team came to Beijing's Financial Street and directly visited Bloomberg. They interviewed Huang Yiquan, general manager of Bloomberg China, and asked him to share financial data and the business story behind it.
[Company business card]Bloomberg is the world's leading provider of business, financial information and financial information. It is headquartered in Manhattan, New York, USA. Bloomberg's advantage lies in the rapid and accurate delivery of data, information and analysis tools through innovative technology. Its core product is BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONALTMSERVICE). Bloomberg Professional provides real-time financial information to more than 320,000 users worldwide.
[Dialogue Guest]
Huang Yiquan, General Manager of Bloomberg China
He Xia Vice President of Bloomberg China
Focus: Win with accurate data
"Providing comprehensive and accurate data on various markets around the world is our core. These data cover various asset classes, whether it is oil, options, or foreign exchange. We provide investors with the most comprehensive data. And it is not just data for one country, but data and information for various countries and regions around the world."
---Huang Yiquan, General Manager of Bloomberg China
Huiyuan Voice: Hello, Mr. Huang and Mr. He, I am very happy to invite you two to accept an exclusive interview with our Huiyuan Voice Radio Station of the w88 casino today. Although, as students from finance and economics universities, we already know Bloomberg very well, we still hope that you can briefly introduce Bloomberg. Thank you.
Huang Yiquan:Let’s talk about our Bloomberg major firstTMService, that is, Bloomberg terminal, some situations around the world. Currently, there are 320,000 Bloomberg terminals. You can understand that almost all traders and investment institutions, whether it is bonds, stocks, or foreign exchange, will definitely use Bloomberg’s information and use our terminals. Our terminal not only includes real-time data and information, but also includes some analysis functions to provide comprehensive support for transactions. The feedback from customers is very good and the popularity around the world is very high.
Our market share has been increasing in the past few years. According to research by market information company Burton-Taylor, Bloomberg has the highest market share in the global financial data terminal field. In the Asia-Pacific region, most financial traders in larger financial markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong, or Tokyo use Bloomberg terminals and value our performance.
Huiyuan Voice: Then I would like to ask, some time ago, Thomson and Reuters merged into the public market, hoping to compete with Bloomberg. However, Bloomberg's development momentum has been very good, and Thomson Reuters has not been able to catch up. I would like to ask, compared with Thomson Reuters, what is the competitive advantage of Bloomberg? What is the comparative advantage?
Huang Yiquan:I think our company is a very innovative (capable) company. Financial markets are changing all the time, and very dramatically. Therefore, our product managers and colleagues in the R&D department are actively developing some new products to improve user experience based on the direction of market development and changes in user needs. I think this is very important for doing financial data or financial analysis functions.
Furthermore, we are a company of great courage and vision. For example, during the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, many institutions reduced their staff size, especially their analysis departments. But at that time we were doing the opposite. We were setting up a new analysis department to do industry analysis, so we recruited many senior analysts who had previously worked in Boston or London. They formed Bloomberg's own research team, which we called Bloomberg Intelligence）. This greatly improves the accuracy of our data. These are our advantages.
Innovation: “Every week we launch new features”
He Xia:I would like to add here that it is actually not convenient for us to comment on competitors. As Mr. Huang said, we focus on constantly improving ourselves and improving ourselves. From the first day our company was founded, we have been constantly innovating. In fact, "innovation" sounds very cliché in China, but in our company we really pursue innovation every day. Because Mr. Bloomberg has been innovating since the first day he founded this company in 1981. At that time, personal computers were not yet popular. He founded this company in a small office with four or five of his friends, using his dismissal compensation. So if you have the opportunity to visit the US headquarters in the future, the first generation of Bloomberg financial terminals are still displayed there, very small. After that, with continuous innovation, we have more than 20,000 functions in our terminal today, and we launch new functions almost every week. But this does not mean that our company has achieved success and can rest on its laurels. For example, have you ever heard of the magazine "Institutional Investor"? This magazine is very influential internationally and is a very respected magazine in the financial field. They will make a selection every year to select the most innovative people and companies in the financial industry. Our company's co-founder Tom Secunda）Mr. has been rated as the most innovative person by "Institutional Investor" for three consecutive years.
In addition, we have many very professional talents. We currently have more than 15,500 employees worldwide. Compared with many large companies, we do not have many people, but among our 15,500 employees, more than 3,000 are technical experts. All functions provided by our products are designed and implemented by our own technical staff. We also have a data team of more than 4,000 people, who cooperate with many exchanges and data companies around the world to provide our customers with financial data and financial-related information as quickly as possible with the most accuracy and speed. We are very efficient and professional. To give an example, everyone knows that social media has developed rapidly in recent years. I remember particularly well that on April 2, 2013, the SEC announced that companies could use their websites throughFacebookRelevant financial information is disclosed by social media such as Twitter. Two days later, Bloomberg announced that users can see real-time information on Twitter on the Bloomberg financial terminal. It caused a big stir in the industry at that time. Rome was not built in a day, and these functions cannot be built overnight. It can be said that our company is relatively foreseeable and has been innovating around customer needs, so we can announce similar technological innovations in a timely manner.
There is also innovation on mobile terminals. In the past, everyone sat in front of the computer at their desk. After coming here every day, they would read a lot of Bloomberg data and make a lot of transactions. But in fact, the changing trend in recent years is that many people operate on mobile terminals, such as iPad, iPhone, Android phones, and Blackberry. We have long noticed this trend. Bloomberg Professional is now available on three mobile platforms, whether on Android, iOS or BlackBerry. In the words of our chairman, we are agnostics. We don’t know which of these three systems will win in the end, so we have all three systems. Moreover, we also won a technology award in the United States for our mobile application that year, and the user experience on the mobile terminal was very good. What's more, it was just reported yesterday that Apple Watch will be launched, and our Bloomberg APP for Apple Watch will be released as soon as possible. Basically, Bloomberg’s software system can help you with all your information needs throughout the day. Our innovation is reflected in every link and every aspect.
Service: "24 hours a day uninterrupted service"
He Xia:The last point is customer service. For any Bloomberg Professional service user in the world, you only need to press the F1 key - we also call it the "help" key twice, and someone will respond to you immediately, 24 hours a day. For example, a 20-year-old user who is very familiar with our work will ask particularly difficult questions; some people who are new users may ask very simple questions. But no matter what question you can ask, this is our commitment to our customers. Many customers have asked us, why did we migrate to Bloomberg? I heard that Bloomberg’s service is very good. First, they need to be precise. Second, they want to serve. If there is a need, you should respond immediately.
Huang Yiquan:Moreover, we are very experienced in market development. Because we are looking at many markets across the world, a certain market may have developed rapidly and is relatively complete, while other markets may have developed more slowly. Therefore, we can predict how another market will develop in the future from the current situation of one market, what changes there may be, and what things may affect the development of this market.
Second, each of our financial markets will have some market research proprietary to Bloomberg. Especially in the United States, our sales staff are not only selling, they need to understand how the market works and how traders do these transactions. And there are a lot of exchanges between our colleagues in various regions, so we can understand each other. This is another advantage.
Another point is that we believe that the financial market is an international market. What happens in one market will affect other markets to some extent. If oil prices fall sharply, it will affect other markets, maybe the stock market, or the bond market, or foreign exchange. Providing comprehensive and accurate data for every market in the world is at our core. These data cover various asset classes, whether it is oil, or options, or foreign exchange, we provide investors with the most comprehensive data. And it’s not just data from one country, but data and information from every country and region in the world. So, I think this is the main reason why Bloomberg has continued to develop.
Voice of Huiyuan: Nowadays, the Internet has a particularly big impact on the financial market. The current trend of the Internet may be free, but Bloomberg basically maintains a high-fee model, which is its important profit model. After the impact of the Internet in the future, will you change your strategy in the future?
Huang Yiquan:This is a good question. The Internet is a medium. I think the key to the problem lies in the content. Is your content faster than others? Is your data more accurate than others? Can comparisons be made? If you look for data from two companies on the Internet, the algorithms for the two data may be completely different. We at Bloomberg balance the extensive data of all companies and create a model to make the data comparable. In this regard, whether to charge or not is not a question of the channel. Whether to charge or not is about whether your content is good, fast, and accurate. Therefore, in the professional market, these things are necessary, must be fast, and must be accurate, and cannot be easily affected by the Internet.
He Xia:I also want to correct what you just said. We don’t think our prices are high. In fact, our prices have been very stable over the years. And what we provide is an integrated product. After you buy this product, the services we provide are the same all over the world. You can use all the functions. Basically, I just mentioned that the 20,000 functions can be used after you buy it. So in this case, for many people, it is actually much more practical and of very high value. As Mr. Huang said, we provide data. We not only provide raw data, we also provide a lot of analysis, that is, we will provide a lot of analysis and research reports later. Let me give you an example. That day, Premier Li Keqiang gave a report. After the work report came out, within three hours, our Asia Chief Economist Tom Orlik）Sir, a British man who can speak Chinese, published an analysis report, and the Chinese was quickly translated that day. Later, CCTV noticed this matter. That night's "Xinwen Lianbo" said that we noticed that Bloomberg uploaded its interpretation of Premier Li Keqiang's report within three hours. Our analysts and economists are very senior experts in the industry with more than 15 years of experience. They provide investors with very valuable analysis. So we definitely don’t charge high fees.
Future: "China will develop very, very fast in the next ten years"
Huiyuan Voice: In addition to selling products, Bloomberg’s sales staff are actually also understanding the market. So, is your cooperation with our local universities in Beijing also a potential situation to understand the market? Through such lectures and training, can we understand the specific user experience of our users through such lecture training? Is this one of the reasons for cooperation with universities in Beijing?
Huang Yiquan:We believe that China will develop very, very fast in the next ten years and will definitely become more and more open. So our purpose is training. We want to give Chinese college students the opportunity to understand some data or some analysis of the entire world financial market, so that college students know how foreign capital markets are analyzed. Because sooner or later young people will face the entire world's financial markets.
He Xia:I would like to add something here. In fact, when it comes to cooperation with universities, I mentioned at the beginning that we have a very long tradition and history around the world. In developed countries in Europe and the United States, many universities in business schools and finance departments had Bloomberg Financial Labs very early on. This financial laboratory is a tool for students in the finance department or students who are interested in learning in these areas. They can use the Bloomberg financial terminal to conduct many simulated operations on the financial market. The teacher also uses the Bloomberg financial terminal to conduct some very realistic simulation teaching. So when these students graduate, many of them are very popular on Wall Street because they know how to use the most advanced data and tools to practice finance. So in recent years, many universities in China have begun to set up Bloomberg Financial Labs, and the feedback we have heard is the same. Last year, two students who studied in the Bloomberg Financial Lab received many offers because they had these previous experiences and they were very familiar with the Bloomberg Financial Terminal. In particular, China has been promoting financial reform in recent years. The financial market is developing rapidly, and financial institutions are also looking for these talents. In fact, from our perspective, we especially hope that these elites can have the opportunity to access Bloomberg financial terminals when they are in college and learn about international financial information through Bloomberg professional services. We at Bloomberg particularly hope to become the best global financial data provider, as well as the best local data provider. So we have actually heard a lot of very positive feedback from universities. In fact, we also look forward to the fact that students from the University of International w88 and Economics can one day learn more about the financial world outside through the Bloomberg Financial Lab.
Voice of Huiyuan: We are also looking forward to it. So what is the distribution of financial laboratories in China?
He Xia:Many universities such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Central University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, and Southwestern University of Finance and Economics now have financial laboratories. Generally, there are 12 terminals, and the utilization rate will be higher. We also often have professionals organize some training and lectures for students and teachers. Our economists and industry analysts gave a lot of professional sharing to students from Tsinghua University and Peking University last year, and they liked it very much. Because this is a first-hand analysis of the financial market.
Voice of Huiyuan: Thank you both very much for accepting our interview! I hope that our University of International w88 and Economic Cooperation can have more cooperation with Bloomberg in the future.
Huang Yiquan: You represent the future, and I am very happy to be interviewed by you!
Huiyuan Voice’s "Business University Makers" special topic sixth issue team:
Acknowledgments: Xu Yuhang, director of the Classroom and Conference Room Management Center, teacher Wang Mingxian for contacting us about the interview, and teachers Song Fengying and Li Yanhong for their strong support!
Chief planner: Zhang Xiaofeng Zhou Bo
Planner: Yu Zhu Li Lu
Interview: Zhou Dianshuang Wang Yu
Producer: Yang Zhounan
Editor: Wang Yu and Zhou Dianshuang
Coordinator: Wang Yu
Art Design: Zhang Yue
New media: Yang Zhounan Wei Tengbo
Huiyuan Voice Campus Broadcasting Production jointly produced by the Party Committee Propaganda Department and the w88 casino Employment Guidance Center
