![Picture](/uploads/4/7/4/4/47444475/6754114_orig.jpg)
The Chinese gold farming “business”
By Casper Berg Rosing
In China, a new tendency involving gold farming has popped up in recent years. Not gold as the psychical mineral though, but gold and other currencies in online games. Being farmed either by a legit company or by prisoners in tough labour camps, the online currency-business, most popular in the online game “World of Warcraft”, has become a real thing in China. Figures from China Internet Centre show, that around £1.2 billion worth of online currencies were traded in 2008, and that the number of gamers and companies who play to earn and trade the currencies are highly on the rise.
One type of gold farmer is the one who is forced. For example prisoners at the Jixi Labour camp in northeast China. At this camp, a group of around 300 prisoners are forced to do both manual labours at day, and then to farm gold at a 12-hour shift in Wold of Warcraft at night. In this camp, as it is in many labour camps who force prisoners to farm gold, the prison guards and bosses are the ones who earn money this way. In this camp, a prison employee can earn between £470-570 worth of currencies a day, while the prisoners get nothing.
Another type of gold farmer is the “commercial” farmer. An example is a company in the city of Nanjing, China. Here employees work in 12-hour shifts, which are very normal in this business, farming gold for their bosses to sell to the potential buyers. In this Nanjing company, the employees will earn what is worth about $1.25 for every 100 gold they make in game, which is an average wage of about 30 cent an hour. The boss, who runs the company, will make 3$ at minimum selling the same amount of coins to an online retailer.
It is estimated that about 100,000 workers are employed in businesses like these ones all over China.
By Casper Berg Rosing
In China, a new tendency involving gold farming has popped up in recent years. Not gold as the psychical mineral though, but gold and other currencies in online games. Being farmed either by a legit company or by prisoners in tough labour camps, the online currency-business, most popular in the online game “World of Warcraft”, has become a real thing in China. Figures from China Internet Centre show, that around £1.2 billion worth of online currencies were traded in 2008, and that the number of gamers and companies who play to earn and trade the currencies are highly on the rise.
One type of gold farmer is the one who is forced. For example prisoners at the Jixi Labour camp in northeast China. At this camp, a group of around 300 prisoners are forced to do both manual labours at day, and then to farm gold at a 12-hour shift in Wold of Warcraft at night. In this camp, as it is in many labour camps who force prisoners to farm gold, the prison guards and bosses are the ones who earn money this way. In this camp, a prison employee can earn between £470-570 worth of currencies a day, while the prisoners get nothing.
Another type of gold farmer is the “commercial” farmer. An example is a company in the city of Nanjing, China. Here employees work in 12-hour shifts, which are very normal in this business, farming gold for their bosses to sell to the potential buyers. In this Nanjing company, the employees will earn what is worth about $1.25 for every 100 gold they make in game, which is an average wage of about 30 cent an hour. The boss, who runs the company, will make 3$ at minimum selling the same amount of coins to an online retailer.
It is estimated that about 100,000 workers are employed in businesses like these ones all over China.
App store ranking manipulation in china
![Picture](/uploads/4/7/4/4/47444475/6186392_orig.jpg)
Gustav Kaastrup
On February the 5th a picture surfaced on the social media site weibo.com, depicting a woman sitting behind what could easily be around a hundred iPhones. The picture was released with the caption “Hard working App Store ranking manipulation employee”.
The smartphone app market is a growing business, as more and more people get their hands on electronic smartphones and tablets. This has led to an increasingly competitive industry, with app developers getting more desperate to stay afloat in an ever-growing market as the picture attests too. The woman is presumably uninstalling, and the re-installing apps on the devices. This will boost their download rating, and therefore make them more visible to potential customers. More downloads means more visibility, which means everything when competing with over a million other apps.
On February the 5th a picture surfaced on the social media site weibo.com, depicting a woman sitting behind what could easily be around a hundred iPhones. The picture was released with the caption “Hard working App Store ranking manipulation employee”.
The smartphone app market is a growing business, as more and more people get their hands on electronic smartphones and tablets. This has led to an increasingly competitive industry, with app developers getting more desperate to stay afloat in an ever-growing market as the picture attests too. The woman is presumably uninstalling, and the re-installing apps on the devices. This will boost their download rating, and therefore make them more visible to potential customers. More downloads means more visibility, which means everything when competing with over a million other apps.
![Picture](/uploads/4/7/4/4/47444475/956103_orig.jpg)
Another picture later surfaced, this time showing the costs for these app store manipulation services. The picture shows a site offering a guaranteed top ten ranking for prices up to 63,000 dollars per week. A Chinese investing firm estimated that these services are able to forge around 100 rankings per hour, however it’s unclear how much this affect the actual app store ranking.
Apple has promised to look into this illegitimate practice but this could prove difficult, as they have yet to provide a way to sort out these operations that manipulate actual downloads. For app developers who are not willing to cheat the system, this could mean a bleak future is in store for their products.
Apple has promised to look into this illegitimate practice but this could prove difficult, as they have yet to provide a way to sort out these operations that manipulate actual downloads. For app developers who are not willing to cheat the system, this could mean a bleak future is in store for their products.
![Picture](/uploads/4/7/4/4/47444475/5551098_orig.png)
Tasks - Find the words
CREDIT - CURRENCY - INMATES - INTERNET - LABOURCAMP - ONLINE - OPERATION - PRISON - REGULATION
How to solve the task
In this task you have to download the document below and find the nine words, that are listed above, in the grid to the left, which relate to the article you just read above. If there is any trouble finding some of the words go together in pairs and help each other.
CREDIT - CURRENCY - INMATES - INTERNET - LABOURCAMP - ONLINE - OPERATION - PRISON - REGULATION
How to solve the task
In this task you have to download the document below and find the nine words, that are listed above, in the grid to the left, which relate to the article you just read above. If there is any trouble finding some of the words go together in pairs and help each other.
![Picture](/uploads/4/7/4/4/47444475/347941.png?518)
Fill in the words - task!
In this task, you have to print the document for this task and fill in the words below in the squares, so that all words are presented. For each number there is a hint in form of a sentence in which you can finish the sentence with the word that relates to that specific number.
When you are finished you can hand it in to your teacher or check your answers using the answer-sheet document on the site.
The words are:
IPhone – China - Application – Game – Developed – Appstore - Money
In this task, you have to print the document for this task and fill in the words below in the squares, so that all words are presented. For each number there is a hint in form of a sentence in which you can finish the sentence with the word that relates to that specific number.
When you are finished you can hand it in to your teacher or check your answers using the answer-sheet document on the site.
The words are:
IPhone – China - Application – Game – Developed – Appstore - Money
![](http://www.weebly.com/weebly/images/file_icons/rtf.png)
find_the_words.docx | |
File Size: | 41 kb |
File Type: | docx |
![](http://www.weebly.com/weebly/images/file_icons/rtf.png)
fill-in-the-words_ch.docx | |
File Size: | 27 kb |
File Type: | docx |