Also from the Evolution of Money:

QQ coins, a kind of virtual money initially invented by the Chinese company Tencent Holdings, Ltd, was initially designed to allow users to buy digital commodities, such as virtual flowers, but has taken on a real market value.

It started a few years ago when the company started selling QQ coins for one yuan each, about 13 cents. The use of the coin took off, and then something very strange happened: online vendors started accepting the virtual currency in exchange for real world items. The artificially designed virtual currency had become real money. Its use took off, with massive online trade. It came to be used for gambling and prostitution, things that would be illegal in the realm of real money. Over the past month alone, the value of QQ coins has gone up 70%.

QQ is also the name of Tencent’s instant messenging program which Wikipedia says is number one in China and number three in the world.

The QQ coin is a virtual currency used by QQ users to “purchase” QQ related items for their avatar and blog. QQ Coins are obtained either by purchase, one coin for one RMB, or for using the mobile phone service. Due to the popularity of QQ in Chinese young population, QQ coins are now accepted by gradually more and more online stores and gaming sites in exchange for “real” merchandise such as small gifts, and raised the concern of replacing (and thus “inflating”) real currency in these transactions. The People’s Bank of China, China’s central bank, says it is investigating the possibility of cracking down on QQ coin, due to people using QQ Coins in exchange for real world goods. Tencent claims the QQ coin was merely a regular commodity, and thus not a currency.

This is interesting as well:

It was created by a Chinese Internet company called Tencent Holdings Ltd. to sell such things as virtual flowers for instant-message buddies, cellphone ringtones and magical swords for online games. They are awards for free to top-scoring videogamers. The payment system was made in 2002 to allow its 233 million regular registered users to shop for treats in its virtual world.