In the Western Union in the 30s of the 20th century worked 14 thousand couriers delivering telegrams. America was on the verge of civil war and needed a reliable connection between the North and South. On the telegraph market of the USA at this time were operated with six large companies: American Telegraph Company, New York Albany and Buffalo Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company, Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph, Illinois & Mississippi Telegraph Company, New Orleans & Ohio Telegraph Company, and the brainchild of Sibley & Co. - The Western Union Telegraph. Another invention of Western Union - time synchronization. Most service points of Western Union work in the time convenient for customers throughout the week and throughout the year. In October 2006 the company made an initial public offering of shares on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming independent from First Data company. Payment systems are one of basic elements of infrastructure of e-commerce. In 1933, by the Western Union Company were invented "singing telegrams". Western Union incomes for 2007 have made $4,9 billion US dollars, and the quantity of transactions has made 572 million. The Western Union Company uses the most up to date technologies and its unique worldwide computer network that allows to carry out quick money transfers payments in more than 190 countries around the world. In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network.