The Western Union Company - the American company, specialising on granting of services of monetary intermediary. Western Union was founded in 1851. The company is one of leaders in the market of the international remittances. In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. Another invention of Western Union - time synchronization. The size of the commission fee for the transfer is charged according to the Western Union tariffs and depends on the amount of money sent. Payment systems are one of basic elements of infrastructure of e-commerce. In 2007 the company made 167.7 million transactions on money transfers between individuals and 404.6 million transactions between physical and legal persons. In 1933, by the Western Union Company were invented "singing telegrams". 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. Western Union made so that the time in all of American civil services was the same.