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

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