> They're paying for the data source

Yup.

If you want fixed-income data, Bloomberg is the only shop on the street data-wise.

If you want other financial data, Bloomberg's fixed entry-point pricing tends to make more sense in terms of bang for buck than its competitors modular price sheets.

People saying Bloomberg is just about the chat are simply embarrassing themselves.

Look at the price sheets of Eikon, Factset, CapIQ etc. There is no such thing as a cheap "Bloomberg killer".

Quality data is expensive. So are the leased-lines it arrives at Bloomberg on. So is the data wrangling architecture.