Virtual economy boosts silently!

There is a new burgeoning economy that usually called Virtual Economy. This new economy is a growing, it is global, and, according to a recent story in the New York Times, sweat shops in China have already been setup to start profiting from it. The interesting thing about this new economy is that you have probably never heard about it, never stepped foot in it, and it is 100% virtual.

Although some of the transactions in Virtual Economy happen on eBay, I am not talking about the people buying and selling real goods and services, these transactions don't actually take place in the World you live in. Massive multi-player online games (MMOs or MMOGs), like Everquest, World of War Craft, Ultima Online and Second Life each have their own virtual worlds, and these virtual worlds are creating virtual economies. By some estimates, the traffic in virtual goods is worth as much as $880 million in real cash every year.

Stick with me here, this gets really interesting.

Each of these virtual worlds have their own currency and these currencies can be bought and sold with real dollars, yen, euros or pounds. In fact, some sites are being setup now to actually track the valuations of these currencies. Want to know the value of 1 Million