For some reason, Amazon have announced that they will be giving away “tens of millions of dollars”, which sounds great until you realise that they’re giving away virtual Amazon coins.

This currency, launching in May, will be available through your Amazon account with one coin worth one US cent, very much like the way one US cent is equivalent to one US cent, which you can spend anywhere you like.

This Amazon money can be used to buy apps or make in-app purchases on the Kindle Fire. There’s no news of it being released in the UK as yet, but don’t fret because there’s always real money to play with.

Amazon are hoping that this virtual giveaway will spur people on to buy apps and encourage developers to create apps for the Kindle tablet.

“Amazon Coins is an easy way for Kindle Fire customers to spend money on developers’ apps in the Amazon Appstore, offering app and game developers another substantial opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increase monetization even further,” the retail giant said in a statement.

Of course, Amazon aren’t the first to launch pretend money. Facebook did something similar some years ago, but quietly ditched it last year because no-one was interested.