In a post on Virtual Economy Research Network, Professor Richard Heeks is summarizing several key facts about the gold farming activity in China.

• There are 400.000 people involved in gold farming/trading in a realistic estimate. This number can be as high as 1.000.000 people.
• There are around 60.000 brokerages all aroud the country.
• Brokers (those doing the actual trading) are generally localized within bigger cities, and recruit from the English speaking graduates. Farms tend to be spread in smaller towns - not too small, because they need a broadband connection. They employ workers with a high-school diploma or below.
• Some brokerages have started outsourcing in other countries, such as Vietnam or the Philipines. It might be because of the cost reduction, or because they attack markets/games more popular in these countries.
• The turnover for Chinese RMT (real money trading) operations is estimated to be $10bn per year.
• Some brokerages employ up to 250 people, organized in two shifts and in different sectors - IT, customer service, email spamming.
• Farmers are mainly youngsters, 18-20 years old, who take pleasure in playing games all day long (10 hour shifts) for $140 per month, food and accommodation provided. They stay at this kind of work 1-2 years before moving to something else. Customer service stuff earns around $350 per month.
• Typical purchases of virtual goods are around $25 worth. The highest reported purchase was for more than $3000)

With virtual economy gaining in importance, and with recent attempts to bring some order in it, this is becoming a subject to take into account.