Habbo

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Habbo

The home page of the social networking website, Habbo.
URL	See Current services below
Slogan	Where else? Hangout for teens
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Social network service
Registration	Required
Available language(s)	Multilingual
Owner	Sulake Corporation
Created by	Sampo Karjalainen Aapo Kyrölä
Launched	August 2000 January 2001 September 2004
Current status	Active

Habbo, formerly Habbo Hotel, is a social networking website owned and operated by Sulake Corporation. Aimed at teenagers, Habbo features chat rooms rendered by isometric projection in the form of virtual hotel rooms. User pages on the website are linked to these rooms and allow users to share content and create groups with discussion forums. Each user, called a Habbo, has a customizable avatar to represent him or herself. The service gains revenue from credits bought with real-life currency. Credits are used to buy products such as virtual furniture for the virtual hotel rooms and stickers for user pages.

The service began in 2000 and has expanded to 31 local communities,^[1] As of January 2008, over 86 million avatars have been created worldwide and there are over 8 million unique visitors to the Habbo websites around the world every month,^[1] with 75,000 avatars being created every day.^[2]

History

Habbo's original concept came from Mobiles Disco, a 1999 project by Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrölä for the band Mobiles. The idea was successful, and so Karjalainen and Kyrölä created Hotel Goldfish.^[3] That name was scrapped and replaced with Habbo Hotel, which was launched in August 2000 to Finland.^[4] The service then opened to the United Kingdom in January 2001. It has since been expanded to over 31 countries in five continents,^[1] and has been invested in by venture capitalists.^[5]

In December 2004, a 36-year-old man was imprisoned after persuading a 13-year-old girl over Habbo to visit him.^[6]

In May 2006, the service, along with its domain names, were renamed to Habbo.

In August 2007, Habbo's Chinese community closed down temporarily, 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]

On 14 November 2007, a 17-year-old was arrested by police for allegedly stealing virtual furniture bought with real money worth up to €4000. Five 15-year-olds were brought in for questioning.^[8]

The website

Many activities and features that do not appear on the Hotel itself, are available on Habbo's website. The community section of the website features regularly updated news and events regarding the service. Recommended chat rooms, popular group pages and user pages are also accessible from the website. However, the websites main focus is the following two features:

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,^[9] 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.^[10]

Group pages

Users can create groups and design a badge to display on their Habbo Home next to their avatar while in the Hotel. Each group also has a homepage which acts similarly to a Habbo Home, but the group owner and group administrators can only edit it. The majority of the website's content and promotions organised by the site's management is now displayed in groups.^[11]

The Hotel

The virtual Hotel is the chat room of Habbo. The Hotel consists of a client made using Adobe Shockwave technologies, also having updates to the hotel. Once logged in, the Hotel can be accessed 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 another user via the Habbo Console, 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.

Community

Habbo is home to a wide community of people all around the world. Many within the hotel spend their time meeting new people but some prefer to try and trade their items to make a profit. Competition to have the best "furni" is everywhere. However some have found a way to get free items by tricking other users to give up their paid for items. In some cases, users can be scammed out of several hundred euros.

Navigation

The Hotel interface; pictured is a public room.

The centre for all navigation within the Hotel is the Navigator. The Navigator allows users to travel from chat room to chat room around the virtual Hotel. Along as being a means of transportation it also shows basic information a chat room, such descriptions, online users and privacy settings.

Chat rooms

There are two types of chat rooms within the virtual Hotel. The interface of both chat rooms remains the same, however, the designs portrayed as rooms themselves differ.

Public Rooms are rooms which are available to all members, they often depict scenes such as restaurants, cinemas and dance clubs. Most Public Rooms contain an automated robots which shout pre-recorded messages. Public rooms are designed by Sulake and are not customisable by users.

Guest Rooms are rooms which users can customise to endless lengths with virtual furniture, wallpaper and floor patterns, which can be purchased with credits. Users can also choose from a range of room templates that determine what shape the room is. Guest rooms can be created by any member and can be locked to allow access to specific users.

Currency

Credits, also known as Coins in other websites, are the currency used in Habbo. Credits can be purchased using a variety of different services, such as credit card, a telephone service and via SMS. Credits are often given out as prizes for competitions held in the community. The Credits are stored in the user's purse accessible in any public or private room as well as on the Hotel view and while logged in on the website. Credits can also be redeemed into Exchange, which displays the Credits as an item of virtual furniture, the furniture can then be traded among users, and redeemed back into Credits.

Credits for a variety of different features within Habbo, these features are listed below:

Virtual furniture

Virtual furniture can be purchased inside the Hotel from the Catalogue using Credits. Users then can use the furniture to decorate and furnish their Guest Room. The furniture can be traded among users using a trading dialogue. Many users strive to collect more rare and exclusive furniture. Rare furniture is often sold in the Catalogue, but for a limited amount of time, and thus increasing it's value after it leaves the Catalogue. Furniture can also be won by competitions held on the website. Users can also win furniture by playing games of skill, similar to traditional video games.

Habbo Club

Habbo Club, also know as HC, is a premium subscription that offers many additional benefits which can be purchased using Credits. All subscribers receive a badge, that is placed next to their avatar, and can be seen by all other users. Every month an item of virtual furniture is delivered to every subscriber which varies monthly. Subscribers also gain access to a separate queue when attempting to enter full Public Rooms and access to special Public Rooms which are not accessible non-subscribers. Along with this, they also get access to special clothing and accessories, more Guest Room layouts, no website advertisements, a larger friend list capacity and special room commands. ^[12]

Accessories

User and group page accessories can be purchased on the website using the user page interface with Credits. Although there are free accessories available, additional accessories such as stickers, notes, widgets and backgrounds can be dropped from the Inventory onto a drag and drop interface in which users can design and save their page. Accessories cannot be traded among users.

Games

There are also many games available to users that require credits to be played. These games are often more popular than the free games available in other areas of the hotel.

Wobble Squabble — a game played on inflatables in a swimming pool in the Hotel. Players must nudge, slap and push their opponents off the inflatables and into the water using various keys on the keyboard.
Snow Storm — Players must throw snowballs at the opposing team. More snowballs thrown by a player that hit, the more points that player gains for their team. There are also many different scenarios and maps that players can choose to play in.
Battle Ball — a game played on "space hoppers". Teams of a minimum of 2 must try and "claim" as many squares as possible, by bouncing on them with their individual space hopper within the time limit set. When a square is bounced on by a player, it changes the colour to the team's colour. A recent update to the game was released to some hotels, including many new features.^[13]
Diving — Located in the Hotel's main swimming area, users use the diving board to complete their own unique diving sequences. Moves include: stars, flips, and air punches. Points (up to 10) are awarded by other users and the divers ultimate score is displayed on the video screen.

Moderation and management

An example of a Habbo avatar.

There are 18 office branches globally operated by Sulake employees; these office branches are the workplace of the respective Habbo's senior staff.^[14] These staff generally include a "Hotel Manager", or Content Manager, who oversees the community as a whole by communicating with users through newsletters, creating competitions, and managing the content of the website; a Community Manager, who is responsible for moderation and guidance throughout the virtual community by managing in-game Moderators, Habbo eXperts; and a Country Manager, who manages the business side of the community such as sales, finance and administration.

Office staff may also consist of customer support staff, who respond to queries sent via contact forms by users; and graphic designers who create the vast amounts of pixel imagery used both in-game and on the community's website.

Automatic moderation exists in Habbo's language filter, the "Bobba Filter", which replaces offensive text with the simple word "bobba". Replacement applies anywhere from mild to highly offensive words, phrases, and even websites. In this way, the filter assists in moderation of Habbo. A new feature was added on February 27, 2008 that makes users able to turn the Bobba Filter on and off. However, with this feature enabled users cannot report other users to Moderators who are using offensive language.

Habbo's moderation is covered by paid moderator staff; police vetted Sulake employees.^[15] Tools utilised by moderator staff allow them to send messages to individual Habbos in the hotel, which appear as in-game popups. As well as this ability, moderator staff can also kick Habbos from any room, mute them (prevent them from speaking) and ban them from the hotel entirely.^[15]

Habbo eXperts

Habbo eXperts (often shortened to just Habbo Xs – although names differ throughout many websites) are experienced users who volunteer to welcome newer users to Habbo and explain its features.^[16] They are not employees of Sulake and have no powers or abilities except for being able to enter rooms that have reached their occupant limit.^[17]

Sponsorship

As a website geared towards teenagers, Habbo often attracts sponsorship from outside entities. This sponsorship includes visits by musicians and bands^[18] (such as The Veronicas, Gorillaz,^[19] Skye Sweetnam,^[20] Little Birdy, Stephanie McIntosh, Operator Please and Evermore), as well as various corporation 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 such as Internet safety, and drug education.^[21]

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."^[22] In 2005 and 2006, Habbo Australia received the NetGuide Online Web Award for "Best kids’/youth website".^[23] In September 2006, Sulake won Deloitte's Fast 50 competition.^[24]^[25]

Habbo is often victim to various Internet troll groups, which "raid" public rooms (technically flash mobs) with vulgar gestures and comments. A group called "Anonymous" (which is also the group responsible for Project Chanology) "raided" Habbo in 2006 and 2007.^[26] Some trolls collectively customize their avatars as dark-skinned men with afros wearing Armani suits.^[27]

Current services

There are currently 19 websites in operation.^[1]

Country	URL	Opening date	Country	URL	Opening date
Australia	habbo.com.au	November 2004	Malaysia (links to Habbo Singapore)	habbo.com.my	July 2006
Austria (links to Habbo Switzerland)	habbo.at	May 2006	Mexico (links to Habbo Spain)	habbo.com.mx	July 2006
Belgium (links to Habbo Netherlands)	habbo.be	May 2006	Netherlands	habbo.nl	February 2004
Brazil	habbo.com.br	February 2006	New Zealand (links to Habbo Australia)	habbo.co.nz	August 2006
Canada	habbo.ca	June 2004	Norway	habbo.no	June 2004
Chile (links to Habbo Spain)	habbo.cl	July 2006
China (temporarily closed^[7])	habbo.cn	January 2006	Portugal	habbo.pt	March 2006
Colombia (links to Habbo Spain)	habbo.com.co	July 2006	Russia	habbo.ru	October 2006
Denmark	habbo.dk	November 2004	Singapore	habbo.com.sg	December 2004
Finland	habbo.fi	August 2000	Spain	habbo.es	September 2003
France	habbo.fr	November 2004	Sweden	habbo.se	December 2003
Germany	habbo.de	March 2004	Switzerland	habbo.ch	August 2002
Ireland (links to Habbo UK)	habbo.ie	July 2006	United Kingdom	habbo.co.uk	January 2001
Italy	habbo.it	September 2003	United States	habbo.com	September 2004
Japan	habbo.jp	February 2003	Venezuela (links to Habbo Spain)	habbo.com.ve	July 2006