Virtual sales provide aid to poorer nations
Up to 100,000 people in China and Vietnam are playing online games to gather gold and other items for sale to Western players, a report suggests.
Billion dollar business
The most up to date figures for global virtual sales suggests that the market was worth $3bn in 2009.
About 30% of the virtual currency being traded is "hand made" by human players, said the report; a further 50% comes from "bot farms" that automatically play the game and 20% is stolen from hacked accounts.
Coffee comparisonThe high proportion of money from such sales that reaches those in the country where the work was done might mean that it could aid development in many nations, said the report which was co-commissioned by the World Bank and development organisation InfoDev.
It contrasted this situation with that of coffee which was worth $70bn annually in 2009 but only $5.5bn of that reached nations that farm coffee beans.
"This suggests that the virtual economy can have a significant impact on local economies despite its modest size," it said.
Read The Full Story over at the BBC News website.
That would make sense, it's interesting how big of a business that is though
ReplyDeletewith 1 vpn and 10 accounts i can make 130 $ a month after I pay expenses.
ReplyDeletewow, that's pretty impressive
ReplyDelete