Five Questions with Teemu Huuhtanen, President, North America, Sulake, Creator of Habbo Hotel

Authored by Jay Baage on December 21, 2006 - 11:17am.

As the newly appointed President, North America for Sulake Corporation, Teemu Huuhtanen will be instrumental in leading the continued growth of one of world’s most popular online social networking and gaming communities for teens, Habbo.com, Sulake’s top property. Since its launch in 2000, Habbo has grown to over 7 million users worldwide, and has been launched in 29 countries on five continents. Its highly-trafficked North American sites, headed by Huuhtanen, receive over 2 million unique active users per month.In 2003 Huuhtanen was named Vice President, Sales for Sulake, where he oversaw sales at the company’s headquarters in Finland. He has developed new immersive advertising opportunities and created interactive branding techniques that maximize the opportunities offered by social networking and the gaming environment. Prior to joining Habbo, Huuhtanen spent several years in senior posts for a number of international digital entertainment startups. He is based in Sulake’s North American headquarters in Santa Monica, California.

What is unique about your virtual world when it comes to offerings and value to your customers, advertisers and partners?
Habbo is a new kind of youth community rooted in a richly colorful, multi-dimensional virtual world. The attraction of Habbo is based on the camaraderie of the community and the opportunity for self-expression and creativity. Teens join by creating a fully-customized online character persona called a Habbo. From there, users explore the many public areas, play a wide range of games, connect with their friends, decorate their own rooms, dance by the pool, but most of all they have fun.

Advertisers have unique opportunities to reach teens with integrated branding and tools such as sponsored games, branded community rooms, and virtual products. For example, with L’Oreal, we created a virtual salon where members could get new hairstyles for their avatars. For Sprite, we served virtual Sprite throughout the community. We recently created animated music videos using input from our members to promote CD launches for popular artists. We also have the opportunity to offer feedback from our members to brands about their particular product. The viral marketing effect of these campaigns is multiplied by the fact that these take on a life of their own, outside the Habbo environment, as they flow into myriad fan sites and discussion forums.

Describe your business model and why it is the best for your company, customers and partners?
Habbo is free to join for everybody. Our users have an option to purchase Habbo coins through multiple payment methods (SMS, pre-paid cards, credit cards etc.) and with Habbo coins, the users can expand their Habbo experience by buying “virtual products” like furnishings for customizing their own rooms, as well as play multiplayer mini-games.

User sales (Habbo coins) represent over 50% of our revenues, which Sulake has been able to double or triple each year since the launch of first site in Finland in 2000. The balance of the revenue comes from advertising sales and different Habbo brand extensions. The advertisers, which have unlimited branding opportunities within Habbo, make it possible for us to keep our service free to join, which pleases millions of teens around the world.

How many active members do you have and how much time and money do they spend on average in your virtual world?

HABBO sites have been introduced in 29 countries on five continents, with more than 66 million Habbo characters created and more than 7 million active users each month. The highly-trafficked North American sites, www.habbo.com and www.habbo.ca, are visited by over 2 million active users per month who spend, on average, more than six hours a week on the site with an average individual spend of $10 per month for paying users. [Editor's Note: Huuhtanen's in-world persona is pictured to the right.]

What grade would you give your company for overall customer satisfaction (touching on topics such as technical performance, ease-of-use, virtual crime, etc.)?
On a grade from 1 to 5, I would have to say a 5. We are very pleased with this area. We continually strive to provide our community with an optimal user experience. Habbo is committed to creating a dynamic website that is designed to engage teens. One of our strongest features is that the community itself generates the majority of our site's content. Technical performance has been very stable this year, and we are on track to introduce new features to our users on a monthly basis by the end of year 2007. We are looking to please a variety of members who want to see new features like unique mini-games and digital entertainment, as well as entertainment premieres and celebrity visits.

In addition, Habbo considers safety its top priority and we empower teens by providing them with the tools and information that will help them feel safe and in control of their online experience. We will be launching additional new safety programs for 2007.

Where do you go from here? Can you reveal something about your virtual world or plans that are not widely known?
We believe that our users and partners will be pleasantly surprised in the coming months, as we have more new features in the works than ever before. Through Habbo Home, every user will get their own homepage for their Habbo character under the Habbo domain, which they can personalize. We will also introduce totally new concepts in digital entertainment with several key players currently in the market. Habbo will continue to be part of a lifestyle for teens, where they can meet their friends in the community every day and hang-out. They can make new friends, follow trends, and discover new music through different initiatives with the music labels. Habbo´s mobile extension is currently in beta phase in Finland, and by the end of year 2007 millions of teens worldwide can connect and interact with their friends also through their phones.

Joakim Baage

Related Links:
The Future of Social Networking According to Second Life and Habbo Hotel
Five Questions with Philip Rosedale, Founder and CEO of Linden Lab, Creator of Second Life
Poll: Which Area of Digital Media Do You Think Will Get The Most Attention in 2007?

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Comments

Habbo

Submitted by Steve (not verified) on December 22, 2006 - 5:44am.

That was quite interesting. Thanks.

(: head of Sulake is

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on December 22, 2006 - 5:54am.

(: head of Sulake is gorgeous

Nice, I am very keen to see the

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on December 22, 2006 - 9:17am.

Nice,

I am very keen to see the mobile thingy up and running sounds really good. Also i feel you should take into consideration from someone who plays habbo. Is that you should make more emotions or an emotion button which will allow the user to perform certain emotions shuch as: clapping, waving (already an option), dancing (already an option), bowing, kissing (lol), hugging & much much more.

I feel the latest version which was recently annouced on Habbo Finland is a great & much more better version than the previous ones.

Anyways thats all.

Thanks Habbo

Submitted by DrCaz (not verified) on December 22, 2006 - 1:11pm.

I recieved this in an email from Habbo because I own an official fansite and I found it rather interesting and it is nice to get a behind the scenes look at things if you like and know how Sulake staff feel about the Habbo community.

That's awesome,

Submitted by Transactions (not verified) on December 22, 2006 - 5:01pm.

That's awesome,

I feel that HabboHotel has grown RAPIDLY within the last 6 years, and bringing in the new year will only show more improvements for Sulake and give them a great number of ideas of what to expect with the next version.

Im a habboUK user

Submitted by 088! (not verified) on December 23, 2006 - 5:49pm.

Im a habbohotelUK user and its amazing. In the past two years ive been playing habbo ive seen it change soo much and thats only little compared to some who have been playing since it launched in 2001. I Spend on averave £5 on habbo. I Dont mind this because i have no other intrests and nothing else to spend my money on. And its good because you also get to talk to people from places like america canada new zeland france finland. Habbo has changed the way i look at life and i plan to stay on habbo untill the habbo owners decide to call it a day on habbo hotel or i decide to leave because im too old.

Shame i have bin banned

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on December 23, 2006 - 11:21pm.

Shame i have been banned incorrectly from the site, but oh well i found another website... My habbo name was Funkylad989 :D

Banned Incorrectly

banned by da bastards

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on February 5, 2007 - 9:02am.

i have been banned too... i didnt even do nothing... !! lol... whats that new syt u mean.... post it on here asap thanx XD

yes, i agree, habbo's a life

Submitted by Barrie (not verified) on December 25, 2006 - 9:51am.

yes, i agree, habbo's a life changing experience - and for the better.

Sulake Staff Exposed

Submitted by J-Raviv (not verified) on December 27, 2006 - 11:07am.

I think it's good that Sulake Staff are telling people about the company and such. Habbos should know more about the People behind this marvelous invention called Habbo!

Habbo Hotel

Submitted by Steven (not verified) on December 28, 2006 - 1:14am.

Hi,
My name is steven i am the co-owner of habbo-sun.com. i have been playing habbo since 2002 now and i am proud to say i am glad to play on habbo and own such a sucessful fansite. please check out habbo-sun.com and sign up at habbo.co.uk.

Habbo.com

Submitted by BIGDEESGIRL1 (not verified) on December 29, 2006 - 6:04pm.

Hmm, Habbo Lets See. I Enjoy Playing Habbo Hotel I've Been a member Now for 2 years and Counting. The things I like most about Habbo.com Is The Rares. The Thing I hate Most about Habbo is That we don't get Enough Of New rares. Habbo Is always Coming Out with Old rares In Diffrent Colors. where's The Habbo Stoves People, all The Food Habbo Has to Offer and No Stove.LOL anywho I Love the Game But Have many Opinions about The Game and or Staff. *Cough* Some Staff .. LOl and If Your Reading This ADD Me On Habbo.com Or any Hotel In that Matter. My HabboName:BIGDEESGIRL1 Oh and By The way If .com Makes so Much Money For Sulake why don't You all come out with HabboHome For .com we've waited so long for new Things On .com I do think we all Deserve It! ADD Me .com BIGDEESGIRL1 and I Own a HabboFansite Tune In sometime www.HabboDrama.com <3 Holla!

lol habbo is just a game,

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on July 12, 2007 - 10:03am.

lol habbo is just a game, not a life changing anything get over yourselves