The data from Burton-Taylor shows an insatiable demand for fast-moving market data among financial institutions, with spending topping $27 billion for the first time in 2016. The findings show a 3.45% increase in global spend for financial information last year, reaching $27.48 billion.

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.

JPMorgan Chase, Bloomberg's second-biggest client, was reportedly negotiating a contract with Thomson Reuters in January 2016 to replace at least 1000 to 2000 terminals worldwide during the next two years, saving the firm anywhere up to $36 million in charges.

Despite the black box push-back, the privately held financial software, data, and media company goes from strength-to-strength, generating $9 billion in revenue last year and cementing founder Michael Bloomberg's place at number ten in Forbes' annual list of the wealthiest people on earth.

Bloomberg's biggest rival, Thomson Reuters, saw its market share contract to 23.14% from 24.24%, although revenue was flat on a constant currency basis and the company showed positive net sales in each quarter of 2016.

S&P Global Market Intelligence grew the fastest in terms of year-on-year revenue (21.85%), half of which was due to acquisition.

Platts (11.14%), S&P Global Market Intelligence (10.91%), Moody’s Analytics (10.19%) and FactSet (8.72%) delivered the highest five-year compound annual growth rates (CAGR) among market data/analysis or news vendors with at least USD500 million in global revenue.

In terms of customer demand, the report found risk and compliance users and research analysts were the fastest growing customer groups in 2016, while pricing, reference & valuation products were in highest demand, growing an average of 8.51% per year over the past five years.

“The industry showed steady overall growth in 2016 and, in spite of rather pessimistic forecasts from market participants surveyed last year, performed surprisingly well in the Americas and Asia,” says Douglas Taylor, founder & managing director of Burton-Taylor. “Although Emea held the market back last year, MiFID II requirements and the tight regulatory environment should drive spend in all regions in 2017.”