Amazon has launched a virtual currency through which it will, in effect, subsidise developers joining its own service.

The online retailer said it would give some customers “tens of millions of dollars” worth of Amazon coins to spend on applications and games. The developers of the apps and games will get 70 per cent of the currency spent and Amazon will convert the digital money into dollars.

Amazon coins will be given only to US customers at the launch and can only be spent on apps and games that are available on its Kindle Fire tablet. The initiative will launch in May.

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013