1980 - for the first time in the history of Western Union revenues from money transfers exceeded the income from the telegraph service. July 3, 1884 the company's shares were included in the calculation base for the newly created stock index Dow Jones Transportation Average. Payment systems are one of basic elements of infrastructure of e-commerce. You do not need to open a bank account, so you can send or receive money in any of the 170 000 service points of Western Union around the world. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. Thanks to cooperation with Western Union the Associated Press at the end of the XIX century took almost monopolistic position in the U.S. market news. In 1879 Western Union left the telephone business after losing a lawsuit against Alexander Graham Bell - the patent holder on the phone. In 2000 was launched the Web site westernunion.com, with which users from certain countries can independently transfer funds online. The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. In 1849, Selden and Sibley, the founders of the future Western Union, created the New York State Printing Telegraph Company.