Habbo Hotel's Triumphant 2010
Teenagers arond the world seem to be going crazy about Sulake's Habbo Hotel - the company announced today that 2010 was their best year ever with December being the busiest month. Habbo Hotel boasted 4.5M€ revenue from virtual goods in December alone. Unique monthly users also peaked the same month reaching 8.7 million, one-third of whom accessed the game through the Facebook application. Almost 200 million unique active characters have been registered to the site throughout its ten-year existance, 42.5 million out of them in 2010 alone. Habbo Hotel has also been making more money this year than last - annual user revenue grew by 25% compared to 2009.
According to some very interesting metrics released by Sulake, an average Habbo player is between 13-24 years old, plays the game for 2h/week and spends over 22€ on virtual items throughout the year. Some of the most active users, however, played up to 10h/day! That's not bad for a virtual veteran in online gaming.
What are the possible explanations for the company's longevity and success? Micro-payments, social features and teenagers. Habbo Hotel is free to play but easy to spend money on through handy micro-payment options that vary from 1€ text messages to a monthly credit card subscription packages. Money is spent on improving one's own virtual home, but users also often give out presents and trade in items.
Social features in Habbo Hotel's case mean a comprehensive package of connectivity, localization and entertainment geared towards teenagers. Apart from connecting with friends in 11 languages, users can meet new people, play games, decorate their virtual homes and even train pets. Indeed, there are a lot of things to do in Habbo Hotel, it seems. The game has simple, tetris-like graphics that seem to resonate with teenagers today. Though as other game's graphics keep improving, Habbo Hotel might need to get a facelift soon to keep being hip among youngsters.
All in all, 2010 showed that Habbo Hotel is not only a popular game but also a viable product that is in a great shape. The company promises further improvements coming out this year. As Timo Soininen (CEO) put it: 'We expect to grow our revenue in 2011 at the same pace and to further improve the company's profitability'.
I'm 20-yr old and whenever Habbo sometimes comes up with my non-tech friends they just laugh and diss it. They can't believe it's actually still very popular, worldwide.
I think the game is most popular among 13-18-year-olds so no wonder you and your friends don't see it's point.
I also think that the new generation of online social games, social networks as a place to meet and interact together with cool offline games like Xbox Kinect, Nintendo Wii or Guitar Hero would pose bigger threat to Habbo Hotel in the future.