Amazon Gives Away 'Tens of Millions' of Dollars in 'Coins'

By Seth Fiegerman2013-05-13 17:46:55 UTC

If you own a Kindle Fire, you're now $5 richer — sort of.

Amazon on Monday rolled out Amazon Coins, a virtual currency for Kindle Fire, by giving all registered users of the device 500 free coins, each of which is valued at $0.01. The currency, which Amazon first teased in February, can currently be used to buy games, apps and in-app purchases.

In total, Amazon says it has added "tens of millions of dollars" in Amazon Coins to the accounts of Kindle Fire customers — if you're eligible, you should have received an email notification.

Amazon isn't the first Internet company to introduce a virtual currency for its customers. Facebook launched Credits for buying gifts on the social network, but eventually killed off the currency in 2012.

Offering an alternative currency could potentially boost in-app purchases, which would be a boon to app developers and serve as an incentive for them to give some preference to Amazon over other operating systems. Amazon is also offering discounts to customers who buy Coins in bulk, which locks customers into the Amazon ecosystem that much more.

It remains to be seen whether Amazon will roll out Coins to other product categories besides apps and games, but the possibility is certainly there.

"We will continue to add more ways to earn and spend Coins on a wider range of content and activities—today is Day One for Coins," Mike George, VP of games and apps at Amazon, said in a statement.

Image courtesy of Amazon

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