1.
Samsung
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Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand, Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938 as a trading company. Over the next three decades, the group diversified into areas including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities, Samsung entered the electronics industry in the late 1960s and the construction and shipbuilding industries in the mid-1970s, these areas would drive its subsequent growth. Following Lees death in 1987, Samsung was separated into four business groups – Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group, since 1990, Samsung has increasingly globalised its activities and electronics, in particular, its mobile phones and semiconductors have become its most important source of income. Notable Samsung industrial affiliates include Samsung Electronics, Samsung Heavy Industries, other notable subsidiaries include Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Everland and Cheil Worldwide. Samsung has an influence on South Koreas economic development, politics, media. Its affiliate companies produce around a fifth of South Koreas total exports, Samsungs revenue was equal to 17% of South Koreas $1,082 billion GDP. On 17 February 2017, Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was arrested for bribery, embezzlement, hiding assets overseas, according to Samsungs founder, the meaning of the Korean hanja word Samsung is tri-star or three stars. The word three represents something big, numerous and powerful, in 1938, Lee Byung-chull of a large landowning family in the Uiryeong county moved to nearby Daegu city and founded Samsung Sanghoe. Samsung started out as a trading company with forty employees located in Su-dong. It dealt in dried-fish, locally-grown groceries and made noodles, the company prospered and Lee moved its head office to Seoul in 1947. When the Korean War broke out, he was forced to leave Seoul and he started a sugar refinery in Busan named Cheil Jedang. In 1954, Lee founded Cheil Mojik and built the plant in Chimsan-dong and it was the largest woollen mill ever in the country. Samsung diversified into different areas. Lee sought to establish Samsung as leader in a range of industries. Samsung moved into lines of such as insurance, securities. President Park Chung Hee placed great importance on industrialization and he focused his economic development strategy on a handful of large domestic conglomerates, protecting them from competition and assisting them financially. In 1947, Cho Hong-jai, the Hyosung groups founder, jointly invested in a new company called Samsung Mulsan Gongsa, or the Samsung Trading Corporation, the trading firm grew to become the present-day Samsung C&T Corporation
2.
Nanjing Road
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Nanjing Road is the main shopping street of Shanghai, China, and is one of the worlds busiest shopping streets. The street is named after the city of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province neighbouring Shanghai, todays Nanjing Road comprises two sections, Nanjing Road East and Nanjing Road West. In some contexts, Nanjing Road refers only to what was pre-1945 Nanjing Road, todays Nanjing Road East, before the adoption of the pinyin romanisation in the 1950s, its name was rendered as Nanking Road in English. Nanjing Road is located in the city center, running in a west-east direction and its eastern section is in Huangpu District and extends from The Bund west to Peoples Square. The western section begins at Peoples Square and continues westward towards Jingan District, the history of Nanjing Road can be traced back to the year 1845. At that time it was called “Park Lane”, which stretched from the Bund to He’nan Road, in 1854, it was extended to Zhejiang Road, and eight years later, once more extended to Xizang Road. In 1862, it was named formally “Nanking Road” by the Municipal Council, in Chinese it was usually referred to as the Main Road. Around 1930 it was a street with at least one reported casino. At the beginning of the 20th century, eight big department stores were established along the street, a series of franchised stores were also set up at that time. On 23 August 1937 a bomb was dropped on Nanjing Road by a Chinese plane in an attempt to lighten its load while being pursued by Japanese planes, the bomb hit two department stores, killing 612 people and injuring another 482. In 2000, as a part of the development plan held by the local government, the width is about 28 meters and the total length is 1,200 meters, which extends from Middle Henan Road to Middle Xizang Road. In 2007, the Jingan and Huangpu governments agreed to coordinate their policy to enhance the development of Nanjing Road and this agreement followed a request by the committee of Champs-Elysees in the perspective of a friendship agreement between both famous streets. Nanjing Road is the worlds longest shopping district, around 5. 5km long, East Nanjing Road is a dedicated commercial zone. At its eastern end is the section of the Bund. Close by is the Central Market, an outdoor market today specialising in electronic components. Further west is the Nanjing Road pedestrian mall, located here are most of Shanghais oldest and largest department stores, as well as a variety of domestic retail outlets, and some traditional eateries with a long history. The pedestrian mall, and East Nanjing Road, ends at Peoples Park, opposite the park are some of Shanghais prestigious historic hotels, including Park Hotel. West Nanjing Road begins here, and features a number of malls, office buildings, the Shanghai Exhibition Centre
3.
Psy
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Park Jae-sang, known professionally as Psy, stylized PSY, is a South Korean singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Psy is known domestically for his humorous videos and stage performances, the songs refrain Oppan Gangnam Style was entered into The Yale Book of Quotations as one of the most famous quotations of 2012. On October 23,2012, Psy met United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the UN Headquarters where Ban expressed his desire to work with the singer because of his unlimited global reach. On December 21,2012, his video for Gangnam Style exceeded one billion views on YouTube. Psy was subsequently recognized by the media as the King of YouTube, on May 31,2014, the video for Psys Gangnam Style hit two billion views. As of April 2017, it is still the most viewed video on YouTube, Park Jae-sang was born on December 31,1977, to an affluent family in the Gangnam District of Seoul, South Korea. His father, Park Won-Ho, is the chairman of DI Corporation. His mother, Kim Young-hee, owns several restaurants in Gangnam, Park attended Banpo Elementary and Middle Schools and Sehwa High School. He disliked school and bothered some of his classmates, although he sometimes made them laugh. In an interview on South Koreas Seoul Broadcasting System, a teacher of Park said. He had such a big influence that he would drive the entire class to his jokes, I disliked him at the time, but looking back, I see that he added a great energy to the class. Park told CNNs Alina Cho that when he was 15 years old, one particular episode showed a concert at Wembley Stadium held by the British rock band Queen where they performed their 1975 hit single Bohemian Rhapsody. Park said it was this footage that sparked his love for music. As part of preparations to take over DI Corporation from his father, after attending an English-language summer course and studying for one semester, Park dropped out of Boston University and applied to study at Berklee College of Music instead. In South Korea, Psy made his first appearance on Korean national television in 2000 after his dancing caught the eye of a TV producer, in January 2001, Psy debuted his full-length album Psy from the Psycho World. For which he was fined by South Korean government authorities due to his albums inappropriate content and his second album Sa 2 also created controversy upon its release in 2002, earning complaints from civil groups due to the potentially negative influence his album would have on children and teenagers. Since then, Psy has been thought of as a controversial artist, in September of the same year, Psy released his third album 3 Psy. The albums title song, Champion, saw great success due to the hype from the World Cup games held in Seoul
4.
The Wall Street Journal
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The Wall Street Journal is an American business-focused, English-language international daily newspaper based in New York City. The Journal, along with its Asian and European editions, is published six days a week by Dow Jones & Company, the newspaper is published in the broadsheet format and online. The Wall Street Journal is the largest newspaper in the United States by circulation, according to the Alliance for Audited Media, the Journal had a circulation of about 2.4 million copies as of March 2013, compared with USA Todays 1.7 million. The newspaper has won 39 Pulitzer Prizes through 2015 and derives its name from Wall Street in the heart of the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The Journal has been printed continuously since its inception on July 8,1889, by Charles Dow, Edward Jones, the Journal also publishes the luxury news and lifestyle magazine WSJ. They were later aggregated in a daily summary called the Customers Afternoon Letter. In 1896, The Dow Jones Industrial Average was officially launched and it was the first of several indices of stock and bond prices on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1899, the Journals Review & Outlook column, which still today, appeared for the first time. Journalist Clarence Barron purchased control of the company for US$130,000 in 1902, circulation was then around 7,000, Barron and his predecessors were credited with creating an atmosphere of fearless, independent financial reporting—a novelty in the early days of business journalism. In 1921, Barrons, Americas premier financial weekly, was founded, Barron died in 1928, a year before Black Tuesday, the stock market crash that greatly affected the Great Depression in the United States. Barrons descendants, the Bancroft family, would continue to control the company until 2007, the Journal took its modern shape and prominence in the 1940s, a time of industrial expansion for the United States and its financial institutions in New York. Bernard Kilgore was named managing editor of the paper in 1941, under Kilgore, in 1947, that the paper won its first Pulitzer Prize, for William Henry Grimess editorials. In 1970, Dow Jones bought the Ottaway newspaper chain, which at the time comprised nine dailies, later, the name was changed to Dow Jones Local Media Group. In 2007 News Corp. acquired Dow Jones, a luxury lifestyle magazine, was launched in 2008. A complement to the print newspaper, The Wall Street Journal Online, was launched in 1996, in 2003, Dow Jones began to integrate reporting of the Journals print and online subscribers together in Audit Bureau of Circulations statements. In 2007, it was believed to be the largest paid-subscription news site on the Web. Since then, online subscribership has fallen, due in part to rising subscription costs, in May 2008, an annual subscription to the online edition of The Wall Street Journal cost $119 for those who do not have subscriptions to the print edition. By June 2013, the monthly cost for a subscription to the edition was $22.99, or $275.88 annually
5.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
6.
Daily Mail
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The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust and published in London. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982, Scottish and Irish editions of the daily paper were launched in 1947 and 2006 respectively. A survey in 2014 found the age of its reader was 58. It had a daily circulation of 1,510,824 copies in November 2016. Its website has more than 100 million unique visitors per month, the Daily Mail has been accused of racism, and printing sensationalist and inaccurate scare stories of science and medical research. The Mail was originally a broadsheet but switched to a format on 3 May 1971. On this date it absorbed the Daily Sketch, which had been published as a tabloid by the same company. The publisher of the Mail, the Daily Mail and General Trust, is currently a FTSE250 company, the paper has a circulation of around two million, which is the fourth largest circulation of any English-language daily newspaper in the world. Circulation figures according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations in March 2014 show gross daily sales of 1,708,006 for the Daily Mail. According to a December 2004 survey, 53% of Daily Mail readers voted for the Conservative Party, compared to 21% for Labour, the main concern of Viscount Rothermere, the current chairman and main shareholder, is that the circulation be maintained. The Mail has been edited by Paul Dacre since 1992, the Daily Mail, devised by Alfred Harmsworth and his brother Harold, was first published on 4 May 1896. It cost a halfpenny at a time when other London dailies cost one penny, and was more populist in tone and more concise in its coverage than its rivals. The planned issue was 100,000 copies but the print run on the first day was 397,215, Lord Salisbury, 19th-century Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, dismissed the Daily Mail as a newspaper produced by office boys for office boys. By 1902, at the end of the Boer Wars, the circulation was over a million, from the beginning, the Mail also set out to entertain its readers with human interest stories, serials, features and competitions. In 1900 the Daily Mail began printing simultaneously in both Manchester and London, the first national newspaper to do so, the same production method was adopted in 1909 by the Daily Sketch, in 1927 by the Daily Express and eventually by virtually all the other national newspapers. Printing of the Scottish Daily Mail was switched from Edinburgh to the Deansgate plant in Manchester in 1968 and, for a while, in 1987, printing at Deansgate ended and the northern editions were thereafter printed at other Associated Newspapers plants. In 1906 the paper offered £1,000 for the first flight across the English Channel, punch magazine thought the idea preposterous and offered £10,000 for the first flight to Mars, but by 1910 both the Mails prizes had been won. Before the outbreak of World War I, the paper was accused of warmongering when it reported that Germany was planning to crush the British Empire
7.
Bergdorf Goodman
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Bergdorf Goodman is a luxury goods department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The company was founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and was owned and managed by Edwin Goodman. Today, Bergdorf operates from two stores situated across the street from each other at Fifth Avenue between 57th and 58th streets, Bergdorf Goodmans main store, which opened at its current location in 1928, is located on the west side of Fifth Avenue. A separate mens store, established in 1990, is located on the east side of Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf is a subsidiary of Neiman Marcus, which is owned by the private equity firm Ares Management. The company traces its origins to 1899 when Herman Bergdorf, an immigrant from Alsace, France, Edwin Goodman, a 23-year-old merchant, based in Lockport, New York, moved to New York City to work as an apprentice for Bergdorf. Within two years, Goodman had raised money to purchase an interest in the business, which was renamed Bergdorf Goodman in 1901. In 1906, Bergdorf Goodman moved to a new location on 32nd Street, just west of Fifth Avenue, while Bergdorf preferred the less expensive side street location, Goodman prevailed with the new location and bought Bergdorfs interest in the company. Although Goodman had developed a business as a ladies tailor on 32nd Street. Goodman constructed a building at 616 Fifth Avenue, on the site of what is today Rockefeller Center. In 1914, Goodman became the first couturier to introduce ready-to-wear, making Bergdorf Goodman a destination for American, the store moved to its present location at 5th Avenue and 58th Street in 1928, building its Beaux-Arts style store on the site of the Cornelius Vanderbilt II mansion. He was unsure of the success of the new stores location, so, Goodman designed the new store so that it could be subdivided into sections with storefronts that could be rented out if needed. Early tenants included Van Cleef & Arpels, the Grande Maison de Blanc, during the Great Depression, however, Goodman thrived, buying the entire building. Throughout the 1930s, Goodman purchased the mortgages of the surrounding businesses, during this period, Bergdorf Goodman was successful enough to have merited an expansion beyond the single store. However, Goodman preferred to operate in a location where he would be able to personally maintain the quality of the merchandise. Goodmans son, Andrew, assumed the role of president in 1951 and succeeded as head of the company in 1953, Andrew was responsible for enhancing Bergdorfs reputation and expanding its range of merchandise and services. During Andrews tenure as chairman, Bergdorf opened a fur salon, developed the successful Bergdorf Goodman Number Nine perfume, and created Miss Bergdorf, the store began a $1 million expansion in 1959 into two adjacent buildings. The Boys and Girls gift shop expanded into a floor. Eight years later, a $2.5 million expansion in 1967 nearly doubled the stores area, in 1972, Andrew Goodman sold Bergdorf Goodman to Broadway-Hale Stores, which would become Carter Hawley Hale Stores for $12.5 million
8.
Milan
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Milan is a city in Italy, capital of the Lombardy region, and the most populous metropolitan area and the second most populous comune in Italy. The population of the city proper is 1,351,000, Milan has a population of about 8,500,000 people. It is the industrial and financial centre of Italy and one of global significance. In terms of GDP, it has the largest economy among European non-capital cities, Milan is considered part of the Blue Banana and lies at the heart of one of the Four Motors for Europe. Milan is an Alpha leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, services, research, and tourism. Its business district hosts Italys Stock Exchange and the headquarters of the largest national and international banks, the city is a major world fashion and design capital, well known for several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair. The city hosts numerous cultural institutions, academies and universities, with 11% of the national total enrolled students, Milans museums, theatres and landmarks attract over 9 million visitors annually. Milan – after Naples – is the second Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, the city hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015. Milan is home to two of Europes major football teams, A. C. Milan and F. C. Internazionale, the etymology of Milan is uncertain. One theory holds that the Latin name Mediolanum comes from the Latin words medio, however, some scholars believe lanum comes from the Celtic root lan, meaning an enclosure or demarcated territory in which Celtic communities used to build shrines. Hence, Mediolanum could signify the central town or sanctuary of a Celtic tribe, indeed, the name Mediolanum is borne by about sixty Gallo-Roman sites in France, e. g. Saintes and Évreux. Alciato credits Ambrose for his account, around 400 BC, the Celtic Insubres settled Milan and the surrounding region. In 222 BC, the Romans conquered the settlement, renaming it Mediolanum, Milan was eventually declared the capital of the Western Roman Empire by Emperor Diocletian in 286 AD. Diocletian chose to stay in the Eastern Roman Empire and his colleague Maximianus ruled the Western one, immediately Maximian built several monuments, such as a large circus 470 m ×85 m, the Thermae Herculeae, a large complex of imperial palaces and several other buildings. With the Edict of Milan of 313, Emperor Constantine I guaranteed freedom of religion for Christians, after the city was besieged by the Visigoths in 402, the imperial residence was moved to Ravenna. In 452, the Huns overran the city, in 539, the Ostrogoths conquered and destroyed Milan during the Gothic War against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In the summer of 569, a Teutonic tribe, the Lombards, conquered Milan, some Roman structures remained in use in Milan under Lombard rule. Milan surrendered to the Franks in 774 when Charlemagne took the title of King of the Lombards, the Iron Crown of Lombardy dates from this period
9.
Cheongdam-dong
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Cheongdam-dong is a ward of Gangnam District in Seoul, South Korea. The area epitomizes the wealthy lifestyle of Koreans, especially for professionals who have studied overseas. It is known as a shopping area, with the main shopping street dubbed Cheongdam Fashion Street. Along with Apgujeong’s Rodeo Street in Apgujeong-dong and Garosu-gil in Sinsa-dong and this area was originally named Chungsutgol which means clean water valley, for a clean pond that existed here during the Joseon Dynasty. On January 1,1963, Cheongdam-dong was incorporated into Seoul, on October 1,1973, it became one of the 26 dong of the Gangnam District or Gangnam-gu. Gangnam-gu is one of the 25 gu in Seoul, since 1988, Cheongdam-dong has been divided into two sub-regions, Cheongdam 1 dong and Cheongdam 2 dong. Cheongdam-dong was underdeveloped up till 10 years ago, during which time and it formed the existing gallery street, near the Galleria Department Store in Apgujeong-dong towards Cheongdam Park. The area is the location for the headquarters of K-pop management companies S. M, Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, Cube Entertainment, and J. Tune Entertainment. Since January 2012, the area is home to FNC Entertainment. The MCM Haus flagship store is located in the area. One half of the facade is designed by British artist Richard Woods. It also has an Italian restaurant in the basement, furnished with Woods designs, shopping and dining complex 10 Corso Como, opened in 2008, opposite the Galleria Department Store. Also in September 2008, French jeweler Cartier opened its first flagship store in South Korea, named Cartier Maison, located on Apgujeong-ro, with its facade inspired by Korean Bojagi wrapping cloth. Helmed by Managing Director Philippe Galtie, he said It is the largest in Korea, in June 2012, luxury bridal gown designer Vera Wang opened her third global and first Asian flagship store Vera Wang Bridal Korea, helmed by President Jung Mi-ri, in Cheongdam-dong. In December 2012, the area was the setting for SBS weekend drama series and it stars Moon Geun-young, Park Si-hoo, So Yi-hyun and Kim Ji-seok, and is based on the novel, Cheongdamdong Audrey. In May 2013, the 10 Corso Como store was used as a location for the music video of Psys 2013 single Gentleman. In media coverage, Cheongdam-dong is often portrayed as a luxury town, the Fasion Street area is also called new-money neighborhood, a place where the most immaculately dressed, beautiful, and yet curiously unhappy-looking women in Korean can be seen. While it is true that a part of Cheongdam-dong is full of luxury stores, K-Pop hubs, and galleries
10.
London Evening Standard
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The London Evening Standard is a local, free daily newspaper, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant local/regional evening paper for London and the area, with coverage of national and international news. In October 2009, the paper ended a 180-year history of paid circulation and became a free newspaper, the newspaper was founded by barrister Stanley Lees Giffard on 21 May 1827, as the Standard. The early owner of the paper was Charles Baldwin, under the ownership of James Johnstone, The Standard became a morning paper from 29 June 1857. The Evening Standard was published from 11 June 1859, by the end of the 19th century, the evening edition eclipsed its morning counterpart. Both The Standard and the Evening Standard were acquired by C. Arthur Pearson in 1904, in May 1915, Edward Hulton purchased the Evening Standard from Davison Dalziel. Dalziel had purchased both papers in 1910, and closed The Standard, the paper, in 1916. Hulton introduced the gossip column Londoners Diary, originally billed as a written by gentlemen for gentlemen. It became a staunchly Conservative paper, harshly attacking Labour in 1945 in a campaign that backfired. In the 1960s, the paper was now upstaged by The Evening News, during the decade, the paper also began to publish the comic strip Modesty Blaise that bolstered the papers sales throughout the 1970s. In 1987 the Evening News was briefly revived to compete with Robert Maxwells London Daily News, in 1988 it incorporated the byline Incorporating the Evening News, which remained until the papers sale in 2009. A few years earlier,12 percent of the paper was sold to Justin Shaw, Associated News keeps the remaining 24 percent. In November 2009, it was announced that the London Evening Standard would drop its midday News Extra edition from 4 January 2010 with the first edition being the West End Final, previously there were three editions each weekday, excluding Bank holidays. The first, News Extra, went to print at 10,00 am and was available around 11 am in central London, slightly later in more outlying areas. The page changes were indicated by stars in the bottom corner of each page. In January 2010, circulation was increased to 900,000, in May 2009, the newspaper launched a series of poster ads, each of which prominently featured the word Sorry in the papers then-masthead font. These ads offered various apologies for past editorial approaches, such as Sorry for losing touch, none of the posters mentioned the Evening Standard by name, although they featured the papers Eros logo. Ex-editor Veronica Wadley criticised the Pravda-style campaign saying it humiliated the papers staff, the campaign was designed by McCann Erickson
11.
Financial Times
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The Financial Times is an English-language international daily newspaper with a special emphasis on business and economic news. The paper, published and owned by Nikkei Inc. in Tokyo, was founded in 1888 by James Sheridan and Horatio Bottomley, and merged in 1945 with its closest rival, the Financial Times has an average daily readership of 2.2 million people worldwide. FT. com has 4.5 million registered users and over 285,000 digital subscribers, FT Chinese has more than 1.7 million registered users. The world editions of the Financial Times newspaper had an average daily circulation of 234,193 copies in January 2014. In February 2014 the combined sale of the editions of the Financial Times was 224,000 copies. In October 2013 the combined print and digital circulation of the Financial Times reached nearly 629,000 copies. In December 2016 print sales for the paper stood at 193,211, on 23 July 2015 Nikkei Inc. agreed to buy the Financial Times from Pearson for £844m. On 30 November 2015 Nikkei completed the acquisition, the FT was launched as the London Financial Guide on 10 January 1888, renaming itself the Financial Times on 13 February the same year. Describing itself as the friend of The Honest Financier, the Bona Fide Investor, the Respectable Broker, the Genuine Director, the readership was the financial community of the City of London, its only rival being the slightly older and more daring Financial News. After 57 years of rivalry the Financial Times and the Financial News were merged in 1945 by Brendan Bracken to form a single six-page newspaper, the Financial Times brought a higher circulation while the Financial News provided much of the editorial talent. The Lex column was introduced from Financial News. Pearson bought the paper in 1957, over the years the paper grew in size, readership and breadth of coverage. It established correspondents in cities around the world, reflecting early moves in the economy towards globalisation. On 1 January 1979 the first FT was printed outside the UK, since then, with increased international coverage, the FT has become a global newspaper, printed in 22 locations with five international editions to serve the UK, continental Europe, the U. S. The European edition is distributed in continental Europe and Africa and it is printed Monday to Saturday at five centres across Europe reporting on matters concerning the European Union, the Euro and European corporate affairs. In 1994 FT launched a lifestyle magazine, How To Spend It. In 2009 it launched a website for the magazine. On 13 May 1995 the Financial Times group made its first foray into the world with the launch of FT. com
