CASE STUDY : HabboHotel as a Social Community Online

Target audience: 13 -17 yrs.

Fast Facts about Habbos inventors (Greenfields & Nuytemans, 2004)

• Habbo Hotel is a product of Sulake Labs Ltd.

• The online game market is estimated to be worth US $5 billion by 2005 (Source:
  Interactive Entertainment, Sector Review, CSFB). Overall consumer spending on games
  has already exceeded box office revenues of the movie industry.

• Sulake Labs' turnover was about 5 million in 2003.

• In September 2003, Sulake Labs was awarded an Ars Electronica Golden Nica Award for Habbo Hotel, in the seventeenth annual Prix Ars Electronica Awards. Ars Electronica is considered to be the most prestigious cyber arts award in Europe with 2,714 entries this year from 85 countries.

• Just recently Sulake Labs has raised 4 million to finance the company's international expansion. One of the leading venture capital companies, 3i Group plc, is investing 3 million, and Sulake's biggest shareholder, the Finnish marketing communication group Taivas, 1 million.