one of the reasons i'm generally Ok with Slack's valuation is that there is a ton of room for a messaging service to offer a service that is secure and auditable at the level that the SEC/FINRA and Banks require. Like the article mentions, if you talk to the people using BBG, it's really the chat functionality that provides the main value for literally everyone, at least in my experience (former front office dev)
I'm unfamiliar with these terminals (have kind of always wanted to play with one), but at first blush, a "secure and auditable" messaging system does not seem that difficult to build.
Is it a legitimate compliance or practical implementation problem, or is it just the network effect?
Its not just the network effect..Bloomberg's messaging system is tightly integrated with the other functionality of the terminal..for example one can execute a trade via a message or get live streaming quotes.
