1998 - the number of points of money transfers worldwide reached 50,000. The network of money transfers of Western Union is the world's largest. Another invention of Western Union - time synchronization. Money transfer is a matter of minutes, at any distance. 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 October 1871 the company has implemented the world's first telegraph money order. After a century money transfers have become a major source of income for Western Union. 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. The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. Western Union made so that the time in all of American civil services was the same. In 1884 Western Union has become a joint-stock company and was brought to the stock exchange. The company has entered in the first American stock index Dow Jones.