Giviko Khmelidze

Mobile app development

9GAG has a mobile application on iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8, and BlackBerry 10.

In July 2012, 9GAG launched an app for iOS and Android. The mobile application serves as a streamlined version of the web-based content.

The 9GAG co-founding team discontinued all other projects and shifted their focus exclusively on 9GAG. 500 Startups was given equity for their aid and mentorship.

In July 2012, 9GAG raised an additional US$2.8 million in funding from Silicon Valley-based venture capital,

including True Ventures and Greycroft Partners. In August 2012, 9GAG received another US$2.8 million in funding from Silicon Valley venture capitalists, including True Ventures and Greycroft Partners, as well as individual investors like Christopher Sacca, Kevin Rose, and Naval Ravikant. This funding was able to support 9GAG's engineering team growth both in Hong Kong and in Silicon Valley.

The website was co-founded in 2009–2010 by University of Hong Kong student Ray Chan, his brother Chris Chan, and others, with the intention of creating an alternative online platform to email on which users could easily share humorous photos or videos. In a 2012 interview, Ray Chan declined to explain where the name "9GAG" is derived from.

Starting the company under a “Just for Fun” mentality, 9GAG's co-founders began using 9GAG as a résumé-builder for the 500 Startups accelerator program. During the summer program, the 9GAG team worked on other startup ideas, including StartupQuote and Songboard.

Following the 500 Startups accelerator program, 9GAG participated in Y Combinator's incubator and its user-base increased to 70 million global unique visitors per month.

In 1979, the car regarded as the first proper M car for the road was launched. The BMW M535i was the predecessor to the E28 M5 and was a high-performance variant of BMW’s popular 5-series saloon. Powered by the 215bhp 3.5-litre M30B34 engine, it incorporated Recaro seats, bigger brakes, a limited-slip differential and a close-ratio transmission.

Four years passed and the M635CSi was launched. M applied its magic to the 6-series, fitting the new M88/3 engine which developed 282bhp and made the M635CSi good for 158mph. Just 5,859 models were built, although plenty of lesser models gained M badges fitted by owners - a trend that continues today.

The racing subsidiary initially created to facilitate BMW’s motorsport program during the 1960s and 1970s, BMW Motorsport GmbH went on to be responsible for some of the most celebrated road cars of all time.

M division was founded in May 1972 with 35 employees to supplement BMW's road car portfolio with specially enhanced models. By 1988, the company had grown to 400 employees and swiftly became a fundamental part of BMW’s market presence.

The first car to be sold with an M badge was the BMW M1, designed by Paul Bracq with final touches by legendary designer Giorgetto Giugaro. Launched at the Paris Motor Show in 1978, the mid-engined coupé featured a 277bhp six-cylinder engine taken from the 3.0 CSL and was capable of 165mph.

Pushing the Envelope

At time the time of writing in 2021, the 2020s have welcomed some more epic Mercedes-AMG models, such as the A 45 AMGGLA 45 S andGLC 63 After getting on for a decade since any new AMG Black Series models were launched, a sixth addition to the Black Series legacy has been added in the form of the epic Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series.

With a twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 heart and looks that emulate Mercedes-AMG racing cars, this is the most track-focused AMG product yet - tracing back its heritage to the Red Pig from the start of our timeline.

With 0-62mph happening in just over 3 seconds, and with a 202mph top speed, this is without doubt one serious piece of kit born for the racetrack - which happens to be road legal too.

1980s Excess

In the 1980s AMG continued to provide aftermarket and tuning enhancements for Mercedes-Benz models. However, the racing success of the 1970s had set a foundation, and now in the 1980s, excess was very much in fashion.

In 1986 you could send your W124 Mercedes-Benz E-Class to Affalterbach and AMG would do their thing, creating a car which was given the nickname 'Hammer'. Not only was the Hammer cool, it was stereotypically 1980s, featuring wide arches and power pumped up to 375bhp - which was thanks to a 6.0-litre V8 engine. It was hugely fast as well, with 0 to 62mph happening in around 4.4 seconds which is quick today; bordering on crazy back in 1980s.

AMG Beginnings

After founding the company in the late 1960s, AMG became more involved where they could with Mercedes-Benz. In 1971, AMG turned the motor racing world upside down, taking a Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3 V8 executive sedan and transforming it into the 6.8-litre 'Red Pig'. The car cemented itself in history by finishing second at the 24 Hours of Spa, beating much lighter sports cars from rival manufacturers.

The Red Pig is celebrated as the first major milestone in the history of AMG. Today, this iconic car is seen as the foundation for the AMG bloodline and their motorsport-inspired style and heritage.

But how can success on the track lead to a multitude of successful road cars? It is no secret performance cars sell. Worldwide manufacturers even dedicate whole sub brands to them and in essence this is where the success started for AMG.

The History of Mercedes-AMG

AMG are quite simply some of the finest and most sought-after letters to grace a car. For many, AMG is the pinnacle in Mercedes-Benz motor cars, the ultimate performance versions of already incredibly luxurious and exclusive vehicles.

Founded in 1967 by Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher, AMG started by building and tuning engines, expanding into customising Mercedes-Benz vehicles and producing unofficial accessory and upgrade packs. AMG were an entirely separate company from Mercedes-Benz.

They have since become a huge part of Mercedes-Benz history, going from an individual comany which modified and tuned customers' Mercedes-Benz vehicles, to winning motorsport races and now being a fully-fledged department within Mercedes-Benz.

The first Rus capital

The first Rus capital

Kyiv under Lithuania and Poland

Kyiv under Lithuania and Poland

Evolution of the modern city

Evolution of the modern city

Kyiv in an independent Ukraine

Kyiv in an independent Ukraine

With the overthrow of Yanukovych, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin was deprived of his main lever in Kyiv, and Putin quickly moved to destabilize the interim Ukrainian government. The invasion and annexation of the Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea marked the beginning of an extended Russian hybrid warfare campaign against Ukraine. A Russian-backed separatist uprising was engineered in eastern Ukraine, and Kyiv was subjected to repeated cyberwarfare attacks. . In February 2022 Putin announced the beginning of a “special military operation” against Ukraine, and cruise missile strikes preceded a wholesale invasion of Ukrainian territory. The Ukrainian military checked the Russian advance at multiple points, however, and thousands of civilians took up arms to defend the capital.

Another wave of protests rocked Kyiv in 2013–14, when Yanukovych, who had succeeded Yushchenko as president, backed out of a planned association agreement with the European Union at the eleventh hour. Pro-EU demonstrators set up a camp in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (“Independence Square”) and occupied city hall. Scores were killed in February 2014 when police and security forces opened fire on crowds of protesters. Downtown Kyiv became a battlefield, and the buildings surrounding the Maidan were scorched by petrol bombs. Abandoned by his political allies and under threat of impeachment, Yanukovych fled to Russia, and the protesters, dubbed the Euromaidan movement, ushered in a pro-Western government.

Kyiv in an independent Ukraine

Whereas during the Soviet period Kyiv as an international political entity fell largely under the shadow of Moscow, the establishment of an independent Ukraine returned Kyiv to the world political stage. Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence on December 1, 1991, but the country struggled to escape Moscow’s orbit. Kyiv became the centre of the ideological battle between Ukraine’s pro-European west and its Russophile east. Tens of thousands took to the streets of the capital to protest widespread fraud and ballot-stuffing in the November 2004 presidential election, in which Russian-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovych defeated pro-Western candidate Viktor Yushchenko. Yushchenko, who had narrowly survived an attempted poisoning during the campaign, rallied his supporters in a movement that became known as the Orange Revolution. The Ukrainian Supreme Court overturned the election result, and Yushchenko was victorious in the subsequent rerun.

In the first half of the 19th century, Kyiv developed as a major focus of Ukrainian nationalism, although severe persecution from the tsarist government forced the movement to shift the brunt of its activities to Lviv in the Austrian-ruled Ukrainian regions. In Kyiv, as in Russian cities, there was clandestine revolutionary activity (beginning with the Decembrists in the early 19th century) that culminated in a series of strikes and demonstrations leading to the Russian Revolution of 1905. An important role in this revolutionary movement was taken by students of the University of Kyiv (now the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv), which had been established in 1834.

Evolution of the modern city

Kyiv under the tsars

In 1793 the Second Partition of Poland, under Russian Empress Catherine II (the Great), brought Right Bank Ukraine into the Russian Empire, and Kyiv, assisted by the abolition in 1754 of the tariff barriers between Russia and the Ukrainian lands, began to grow in commercial importance. Catherine’s reign was marked by the abolition of the old administrative system and of the post of Cossack hetman (commander in chief) and by the division of Ukraine into new administrative provinces, for one of which Kyiv became the centre. Subsequently, Kyiv became the centre of a governor-generalship covering three provinces.

Kyiv under Lithuania and Poland

In the 14th century what was left of Kyiv and its surrounding area came under the control of the powerful and expanding grand duchy of Lithuania, which captured it in 1362. For a long time thereafter Kyiv had little function except as a fortress and minor market on the vaguely defined frontier between Lithuania and the steppe Tatars, based in the Crimea. It frequently came under attack from the Tatars; in 1482 the Crimean khan, Mengli Giray, took and sacked the town. Almost the only survival of Kyiv’s former greatness was its role as the seat of an Eastern Orthodox metropolitan. A step forward came in 1516, when the grand duke Sigismund I granted Kyiv a charter of autonomy, thereby much stimulating trade.

The first Rus capital

The Varangians (Vikings) seized Kyiv in the mid-9th century, and, as in Novgorod to the north, a Slavo-Varangian ruling elite developed. Kyiv, with its good defensive site on the high river bluffs and as the centre of a rich agricultural area and a group of early Slavic towns, began to gain importance. About 882 Oleg (Oleh), the ruler of Novgorod, captured Kyiv and made it his capital, the centre of the first East Slavic state, Kyivan (Kievan) Rus. The town flourished, chiefly through trade along the Dnieper going south to the Byzantine Empire and north over portages to the rivers flowing to the Baltic Sea—the so-called “road from the Varangians to the Greeks,” or “water road.” Trade also went to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia.

The traditionally recognized year of Kyiv’s establishment is 482 CE, and in 1982 the city celebrated its 1,500th anniversary. However, archaeological evidence suggests that the city was founded in the 6th or 7th century. According to the 12th-century chronicle Povest vremennykh let (“Tale of Bygone Years,” also known as The Russian Primary Chronicle), Kyiv was founded by three brothers, Kyi (Kiy), Shchek, and Khoryv (Khoriv), leaders of the Polyanian tribe of the East Slavs. Each established his own settlement on a hill, and these settlements became the town of Kyiv, named for the eldest brother, Kyi; a small stream nearby was named for their sister Lybed (Lebid). Although the chronicle account is legendary, there are contemporary references to Kyiv in the writings of Byzantine, German, and Arab historians and geographers.

History of Kyiv

Kyiv has a long, rich, and often stormy history. Its beginnings are lost in antiquity. Archaeological findings of stone and bone implements, the remains of primitive dwellings built of wood and skins, and large accumulations of mammoths’ bones indicate that the first settlements in the vicinity date from the Late Paleolithic Period (some 40,000 to 15,000 years ago). As early as 3000 BCE, Neolithic tribes engaging in agriculture and animal husbandry—notably the Trypillya culture of the mid-5th to 3rd millennium BCE—lived on the site of modern Kyiv. Excavations continue to uncover many artifacts from settlements dating from the Copper, Bronze, and Iron ages. The tribes of the area traded with the nomadic peoples of the steppes to the south—the Scythians, the Sarmatians, and, later, the Khazars—and also with the ancient Greek colonies that were located on the Black Sea coast.