February 2, 2010

Gulf Coast Business Review

China Grows Financial Data

Osprey-based Burton-Taylor International Consulting sees a lot of room for financial-data firms to make money in China, and it plans to be among them.

The Gulf Coast business-consulting firm recently published a full data analysis of the mainland’s market and market share, which showed that Chinese portfolio managers and researchers spend far less than the global average but that spending has been growing at nearly 30% annually the past six years.

Financial data providers, the report suggests, are battling for a stake of the country’s quick growing asset-management fee pool, currently reported at $16 billion. Somewhat more important than the growing financial pie, the report suggests that Chinese users are becoming less satisfied with their current data providers.

Douglas B Taylor, the managing partner of Burton-Taylor, said in a press release he was not surprised at a shift from data update speed to data quality.

“What did raise our eyebrows, however,” he said “was the significant drop in news content and portfolio management capability satisfaction levels, which indicates there may be opportunity for different products or vendors to capture revenue.”

The new report suggests that total spending on financial data in China’s mainland topped $340 million in 2009, and that Chinese firms commanded the majority, 59.8%. The two largest international players, Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg, reported combined total revenue of $116 million.

Burton-Taylor International Consulting is selling the full data analysis for $7,500 and selected market share information for $1,500.