A new report claims that Bloomberg will unveil a new apps portal that will allow its clients to buy third-party applications that they will be able to access through the group's financial data terminals.
According to the Financial Times, the Bloomberg App Portal will launch today. This move follows similar launches from Thomson Reuters and Markit.
Bloomberg has reportedly been testing the app store over the course of a year. It will enable the company to add content and take a 30% cut of revenues generated from app sales. It will also keep its approximate 315,000 desktop terminal users up to date throughout the day.
"I know a lot of people thought of us as sort of a closed system. Maybe this will make people look at us a bit differently," said Tom Secunda, Bloomberg co-founder and head of core professional service, which is said to charge users $20,000 a year to use a single console.
There are reportedly 45 applications on the Bloomberg App Portal so far, ranging from data analysis and news to research, valuation and pricing and data visualization.