Euronext Eyes App Expansion to Institutional Clients, Third-Party Content

The app currently carries delayed data on Euronext's cash and derivatives markets and indexes, as well as some other delayed European and world index data. However, next year the exchange will introduce a real-time version of the app, which will be a premium, fee-liable option. Over the coming months, Euronext will move from rolling out the delayed data app to adding real-time and third-party content─some of which will be free of charge, and some of which will become fee-liable as the app develops, says Michael Hodgson, business development manager for information services at Euronext.

For example, data from Indian news analytics provider Heckyl─which was last week announced as the first third-party provider of content to the app─will be free of charge for the first half of next year. The partnership will provide retail investors with sentiment data, market intelligence and trending news for Euronext-listed companies, which Heckyl provides by mining hundreds of thousands of web-based sources and turning it into actionable intelligence, officials say, alerting investors to changes in the public's mood towards a company before its stock price moves.

In addition to the app, the content will also be rolled out in phases across Euronext's market data, listing and retail websites over the next three, six and nine months. "The aim of this partnership is to expand our offering to our retail clients. There are a number of market data apps out there already that provide prices and indexes. This is just a way of differentiating ourselves through additional content," Hodgson says.

However, Euronext will monitor the level of traction that the app receives among retail users, and use this period as a "trial" for whether it can also serve the exchange's institutional clients. Though Euronext will not add sentiment data to the exchange's real-time feeds at this point, Hodgson says it will form part of an offering in the future for professional clients.

"We'll add the Heckyl content to our market data website, and we'll look at further development and distribution for the institutional market," and whether a different delivery mechanism may be needed, he says. "Initially, we will concentrate on the delivery of new information on our app and on our website. In the future we may look at including this data in our real-time feeds."

Euronext is also looking at a number of different partnerships to bring in additional content from third-party providers that are mining "original and interesting" content, rather than "traditional charts and analysis," Hodgson says.

"Here is a requirement for exchanges to communicate with their user base and keep them informed and interested in what is happening in the market. The content you deliver has to be suitable for an app. You don't want very complex charting that you're never going to be able to read. It's a matter of partly showing Euronext keeping up with the times, developing an app, and adding new content to it that is different from something you would get from a traditional vendor," he adds.