Today online retail giant Amazon has brought its Amazon Coins virtual currency to UK customers. If you are a Kindle Fire owner you will find that you have been credited £4 worth of coins in your Amazon account to spend upon Kindle Fire apps, games or in-app purchases. Others will have to buy some; one Amazon Coin has the purchase power of 1p for apps, games and in-app purchases.
Up to 10 per cent bulk buy discount
First of all why would you buy Amazon Coins when you can very easily spend real money on Amazon? (I think Amazon is one of the easiest places to spend, with its ‘one click’ orders.) Well, Amazon Coins are sold at a bulk discount, saving you up to 10 per cent by using the coins instead of real currency. Even buying the smallest amount of coins saves you four per cent (500 Amazon Coins costs £4.80), to get a 10 per cent discount you have to spend £90 on 10,000 coins. In Amazon purchases an Amazon coin is equivalent to 1p.
Not for books, music or video
The range of products you can spend your Amazon Coins on is limited not just to digital goods but to particular kinds of digital content. Amazon says that the coins can be used to purchase “apps, games and a broad range of in-app items on the Amazon.co.uk Appstore and on Kindle Fire”. This excludes popular digital goods such as ebooks, music and films etc.
The only way to get Amazon Coins right now is by purchasing them in bulk – or the free 400 coins you get with a Kindle Fire purchase. However things might develop and Amazon coins become more useful as suggested by Mike George, VP of apps and games at Amazon, who said “We will continue to add more ways to earn and spend Coins on a wider range of content and activities.”
Amazon says the new currency is good for both customers and developers. Developers will apparently get an “opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increased monetization”. Amazon informs us that the virtual currency implementation has boosted developer income in the US over the last few months. Amazon Coins were launched in the US in May this year.
