China's virtual e-currencies

A piece in yesterday's Shanghai Daily caught my eye about China's instant messaging giant Tencent suing Alibaba's Taobao.com over unauthorised re-sale of its e-currency, Q Money, traded through QQ accounts. The article notes:

Before the litigation, Tencent had, through its lawyers, complained to Taobao and demanded it delete trading information of QQ accounts and Q money, a virtual currency for buying Tencent's service like icon and electronic cards.

Taobao.com has set up a trading zone in QQ accounts and other Tencent's products like Q money at a discount on Tencent's official price.

The Q currency, for instance, is on sale at a discount of up to 50 percent of the official price of one yuan apiece.

Now, I notice an interesting and longer piece on the China Stock Blog from research Shaun Rein which gives some background to the trend. He notes:

Q coins can be used to buy virtual products such as items to use in games, or accessories for the avatar that they use for instant messaging conversations. The virtual currency can also be used to vote for real world talent contests, and allows users to play online games, purchase electronic greeting cards, and use antivirus software. Baidu currency can be used to watch feature length movies on Baidu’s website and to download music, and Sina’s U coins can be used to purchase real goods from Sina’s online mall.

He quotes interviews with young people who say they find these systems for convenient than banks and credit cards which remain decidedly un-user friendly in China. He extrapolates to predict a bright future for e-payment and credits as well as e-commerce in China.

Update: while on the topic of unusual things for sale on Taobao, the AsiaPundit blog has a great post about how many of the not-yet-released iPhones are already for 'sale' on eBay bashing Chinese auction site.

Update Update: Wow, e-funny money is really the topic of the day. The very next blog I turned to was contentsutra.com which talks about the volume of transactions done in India online with cash cards.