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Birth of the Industry
Sometime in the ninetimes, gold farming started as a small industry that was done in either cybercafes or in household offices. Of course, it was a small industry at the time. -
Commercialization
During this time, gold farming became noticably more profitable to different countries for MMORPGs. This is when gold farming became more locally known as the "Second Market". -
Korean Cybercafes
During 2001, there were reports of Korean cybercafes having operations of gold farming businesses occuring. People who worked in these businesses, worked hours and hours a day to gold farm. -
Outsourcing to China
During this time, gold farming started to grow more and more in China -
The New York Times
New York Times stated that there were 100,000 full-time gold farmers in China alone. -
Estimations on Gold Farmers
Around 2005/2006, it was estimated that gold farming resulted in making no less than 200 million USD a year and 80% of gold farmers were from China, creating the prejudice towards Chinese players. -
Sales in USD
Sales for these virtual products were thought to be around 200 to 900 million in USD. -
China's Handling of Gold Farming
The Chinese government banned using virtual currency to buy real-world items, however, they can still sell in game items for real money. -
Korea's Handling of Gold Farming
In a high court, it was ruled legal for people to exchange virtual currency for real money with taxation.
