Habbo Hotel
From Habbo Hotel Wiki
Habbo (formerly known as Habbo Hotel) is a social networking website aimed at teenagers. The website is owned and operated by Sulake Corporation.
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[edit] History
The service began in 2000 and has expanded to include 32 online communities (or "hotels").[1] As of June 2008 over 118 million avatars have been registered. There are an average 8 million unique visitors monthly,[1] and 75,000 avatars are being created every day.[2] The 100 millionth avatar was created on Habbo UK in June 2008.[3]
Habbo's origins are said to be from Mobiles Disco, a 1999 hobby project by creative designer Sampo Karjalainen and technologist Aapo Kyrölä for a Finnish band, a virtual chat room running on Aapo's Fuse technology. After having been contracted to design a virtual game and chat called Lumisota (Snow Wars) for a Finnish ISP, Elisa, they were contracted for another project. They developed Hotelli Kultakala (eng. Hotel Goldfish) with a small team of developers and it was launched in August 2000 on the ISP's web portal.
Aapo, Sampo and Dee "Daisy" Edwards (who is believed to have sold the rights to the early 'Habbo Hotel' brand back for nearly one million pounds), an entrepreneur from the UK, wanted to create an international business based on the virtual hotel concept and worked on a plan in autumn 2000 and raised finance. By the end January 2001, Habbo Hotel had been launched in beta mode, backed by venture capitalist company Electric Mother Ventures. The new hotel launched officially a few weeks afterwards, aimed at the teenage market, , with marketing and payment partners in place, run from a HQ in London. It had a new credits system and community and safety features. [4] The next hotel was launched in Switzerland a few months later, in four languages. It has since been expanded to over 31 countries in five continents, including Hotelli Kultakala in Finland which was made into a Habbo Hotel and has been invested in by venture capitalists.[5]
During the years, Habbo has changed its web design and appearance, the latest change occurred in January 2009.[6]
In May 2006, the service, along with its domain names, were renamed to Habbo. In August 2007, Habbo's Chinese community closed down for good, the first time a Habbo website has closed. The challenging Chinese market and high operational costs led to the decision of closing the service. Customers in China were redirected to other Habbo communities.[7] In December 2008, Habbo's Russian community announced it was closing in February 2009 as a result of low numbers. Those on the site with furni (virtual furniture that can be used to furnish rooms in the hotel that are bought with the use of Habbo Credits or Coins, that can be exchanged for real money given to Sulake) have been told they will receive credit codes for use on the USA Habbo community. The closure of Habbo Japan soon followed, in mid April, due to poor marketing and low numbers.
[edit] The website
Many activities and features are available on Habbo's website, that do not appear on the Hotel itself. The community section of the website features regularly updated news and events regarding the service. Recommended chat rooms, popular group pages and user pages and user interest tags are also accessible from the website. The website has seen over five different versions. Over the past three years, the website has become more involved with the hotel. Before 2006 users logged in on the hotel, now they log in via the website, which links them to the hotel. The website provides information on users' credit balance, groups, rooms and even friends. However, the website's main focus is the following two features:
[edit] User pages
This is a feature allowing users to customise their own web page displayed on the website, colloquially named Habbo Home. The web page can be accessed from inside the hotel,[8] and allow for user interaction with the home page of the user, as well as interaction within the Hotel. The web pages are displayed with the user's character appearance and motto. Users can customise their web page with a selection of widgets, stickers and backgrounds. Various widgets, stickers and backgrounds can be purchased with credits to add to the small default range of features.[9] There are also opportunities to win more free features and often branded stickers/backgrounds are offered as part of a marketing campaign.
[edit] The Hotel
Template:Unreferenced section The virtual Hotel is the chat room of Habbo, and consists of a client made using Adobe Shockwave technologies. The Hotel can be accessed by logged-in users via a popup window on the website. When a user accesses the Hotel they are brought to a screen colloquially known as Hotel View. From this screen, members can contact one another via the Habbo Chat, which acts as the main form of communication throughout all areas of the Hotel, and use the Navigator to navigate their way to a chat room. Originally, communication was conducted through the Habbo Console, which was recently replaced by Habbo Chat and by Habbo Mail, which is accessible via the Habbo Homepage.
[edit] Community
Habbo is home to a wide community of people all around the world. By purchasing virtual furniture, or other means, users can design their own Hotel rooms and create a social space for themselves and their friends.
[edit] Navigation
The centre for all navigation within the Hotel is the "Navigator." The Navigator allows users to travel among chat room around the virtual Hotel. As well as being a means of transportation, the Navigator also shows basic information about chat rooms, such as descriptions, current online users, and privacy settings.
[edit] Sponsorship
As a website geared towards teenagers, Habbo often attracts sponsorship from outside entities. This sponsorship includes visits by musicians[10] (such as The Veronicas, Gorillaz,[11] Skye Sweetnam[12], Little Birdy, Stephanie McIntosh, Operator Please, Chingy, Evermore, Avril Lavigne, Ashlee Simpson, Cole and Dylan Sprouse, and more recently The Ting Tings, DJ Ironik, Alesha Dixon, Same Difference and Eoghan Quigg as well as various corporate giants.
As Habbo is targeted at teenagers, and 90% of its users are between the age of 13 and 18,[1] it receives much attention from youth organisations, who educate players about many topics.
[edit] Reception
In November 2001, The Daily Telegraph listed Habbo as a top-10 chat and instant messaging site, describing it as "great-looking" and "proving popular with teenagers."[13] In 2005 and 2006, Habbo Australia received the NetGuide Online Web Award for "Best kids’/youth website".[14] In September 2006, Sulake won Deloitte's Fast 50 competition.[15][16] .
[edit] Current services
There are currently 19 websites in operation, serving 30 local communities.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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