From Mobile Disco via Habbo Hotel to Bobba Bar
The success story of Finnish social entertainment company Sulake has lasted for ten years. The increased importance of online social networks has bought on competition, and new possibilities.
The relative sizes of Habbo Hotel community registrations by nationality in May 2010. Picture: Sulake.
Two weeks ago MyScience wrote about the recent study conducted among the users of Habbo Hotel. According to the study the online communities are becoming increasingly important to young people. It can be viewed as a sign of too much time spent in front of the screen, or as a positive phenomenon.
“The way we look at it, due to virtual communities the social interaction has increased or at least expanded. By all means, we don’t aim at tying the youth to the screen, but encourage them to go out or exercise as well,” says Juhani Lassila, Director of PR and Communications of Sulake, the Finnish company behind Habbo Hotel.
This virtual community for teenagers turned ten this summer. Despite of being a tad younger than its typical user, Habbo Hotel knows how to keep its guests entertained and coming back. “Habbo is at the peak of its popularity”, Lassila says.
Habbo’s mother company Sulake was founded in 2000. The story began when young Finns Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrölä created an online application called Mobile Disco in 1999. Habbo Hotel was built around the disco a year later with some help from advertising agency Taivas.
Since then the Habbo community has grown dramatically. With 185 million Habbo characters and 15 million individual visitors every month, it is the largest virtual community for teenagers in the world. In addition to Finnish and English, Habbo is also available in 9 other languages and it has users from 150 countries.
New features, new audiences
The co-founder of Sulake, Sampo Karjalainen still continues to drive the company’s creative strategy. 33-year-old Karjalainen has a background in graphic design and animation. His hobby project Hel Looks website has presented street fashion in Helsinki since 2005.
The Sulake teams creativity is seen in the frequent improvements to Habbo Hotel. The upcoming features include the introduction of renewed miniature games, and a new version of Battle Ball strategy game in which the users can design and build new levels.
Plenty of Bobba Bar avatars to choose from. Picture: Sulake.
Sulake’s more recent innovation, Bobba Bar, was launched last November, and it is the company’s pursuit to attract those who have grown out of Habbo Hotel. According to Lassila, the application has 430,000 registered users, most of them between 17 and 25 years of age, and the number is growing steadily.
“The idea is to meet new people, visit different theme rooms, chat and have fun,” Lassila says about the Bobba Bar, which is a free application that can be used in smartphones.
Way before Facebook
Game-like worlds are not Sulake’s only endeavors in the world of social media. In 2007 Sulake bought the company behind IRC-Galleria, which was launched as early as in 2000. By comparison, Facebook which has a similar idea was launched in 2004 and became open to everyone in 2006.
IRC-Galleria’s original idea was that the users of Internet Relay Chat could add photos and network with each other in a new environment. Quickly the popularity went past the IRC users and at the peak of its popularity IRC-Galleria has had 500,000 registered users in Finland alone, and reached 70% of the 15-24-year-olds in the country.
IRC-Galleria has been showing faces four years longer than Facebook. Picture: Sulake.
The newer applications of social networking have since eaten up IRC-Galleria’s popularity, but the site still has over 460,00 profiles and new tools for communication will be launched later this year.
On the other hand applications for social media, especially Facebook, can benefit Sulake’s own applications and services when they are employed in marketing and attracting new users. “We are just starting this, and it can make a difference in the future,” Lassila says.
To get more information, visit Sulake Corporation’s website, or find your way to Habbo Hotel, Bobba Bar or IRC-Galleria.
Elisa Lautala works as web editor for University of Helsinki's Faculty of Science. Elisa likes all kinds of cultural events, good books, warm weather, and aqua-jogging.