"We are in communication with some financial regulators in China, and we are preparing for a potential licensing offer from them," Martin Lau, Tencent's president, reportedly said at a third-quarter earnings conference call on November 22, according to a record provided by Thomson StreetEvents.

Meanwhile, Tencent sued Taobao.com, one of China's largest consumer-to-consumer marketplaces, in Shanghai on December 21. It said the latter had become one of the most popular websites for netizens to buy and sell Q coins, and therefore undermined its control over the virtual money.

However, Liang said that Tencent did not have to worry too much.

"I don't think the PBOC's regulations will harm these companies' ability to offer online value-added services," he said.

"On the contrary, I think the involvement of China's top financial regulator will help clarify the appropriate uses of virtual money and boost its development by solving the existing problems through regulation," he added.

Moreover, although it appears that efforts to regulate virtual money are on the way, experts estimated that draft versions of the new rules would not be available for several years.

"I don't think the PBOC will be able to work out a draft in the next one or two years," said Liang. "I think the rise of virtual money is quite a new issue that should be subject of long-term research."

"In the long term, the country's financial watchdogs will surely take the virtual money under supervision," said Ala Musi, noting that the PBOC was unlikely to risk smothering a potentially promising industry by drafting regulations in haste.

"No matter when it comes out, the regulation will surely help the development of virtual money, which will benefit companies like Tencent," he added.

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