Teen social network Habbo opens up for game developers - Polidicks

[release][url=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-03-21-teen-social-network-habbo-opens-up-for-game-developers][img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12875849/jotain/logo-ig.png[/img][/url] [B]Habbo has 10 million monthly unique visitors mostly 13-16, in 150 countries [/B] Facebook may be the leading social network for games, but it's not the only platform for social game developers. At GDC, the Habbo social network for teens announced itself as a game development platform. Habbo has established itself as the leading global place for teens age 13 to 16, with an astounding 1 in 10 teens in Western countries registering on the site. Now Paul LaFontaine, CEO of Habbo developer Sulake Corporation, is opening up their social network to game developers. Sulake is already in discussions with developers about bringing their games to Habbo. "We're actually working with developers today," LaFontaine told GamesIndustry International in an exclusive interview. "We're open for business when it comes to co-developing new entertainment products for the large teen market that we're able to access." Game developers have the opportunity to deliver one of the initial games on a social platform that has a global reach. Habbo's numbers are impressive, if not on the scale of Facebook: Over 249 million total registered Habbo characters, an average of 100,000 new members join every day, and more than 3 million new members join every month. More importantly, Habbo gets 10 million monthly unique visitors (source: Quantcast, December 2011) to their sites, roughly split between boys (56%) and girls (44%); 65% of the users are aged 13 to 16. Habbo has customers in over 150 countries and is available in 11 language versions. [quote]"We're going to provide best-in-class gaming with user-generated content in a safe environment where teens can spend, and that seems like a great way to grow the service" Paul LaFontaine[/quote] A worldwide study conducted by brand value rating agency BV4 and HWZ University in Zurich rated Habbo as the tenth most valuable social network brand, with a value of $3 billion, ranking just behind Zynga. Social game publishers are busy looking for alternatives to Facebook as a platform, for a variety of reasons. First of all, if the majority of your revenue comes from Facebook (in Zynga's case, over 90%), you have to be concerned about the possibility of unilateral changes that may adversely affect your business with little or no warning. Second, other platforms are likely to offer audiences that may not access Facebook. Finally, other social networks are less crowded with games, making customer acquisition easier (and potentially less expensive). Habbo is the latest social network to open up to outside developers. [img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12875849/jotain/BV4_Social-Media-Infografik_EN.jpg[/img] LaFontaine was open about what led to the decision to open up Habbo to game developers. "I joined in September and we spent some time examining the service," said LaFontaine. "We're just going to focus on what we're very good at. Teens traditionally don't monetize very well on other platforms; we monetize them very well. The other thing we do well is safety. We moderate all chat; we've been recognized by the EU for having one of the safer sites for teens. Safety is a passion of ours and we're very focused on that. If we can provide a safe, moderated environment where teens spend, and we open that up, we can take advantage of a lot of creative force." Habbo already has games on the network created by their in-house teams, but LaFontaine felt that this was not taking full advantage of the network's potential. "We're not experienced at building mobile games, we don't have the best game teams in the world," noted LaFontaine. "We are one of the best at monetizing teens and creating a safe environment, so why not put the best with the best? We're also moving towards more user-generated content. We're going to provide best-in-class gaming with user-generated content in a safe environment where teens can spend, and that seems like a great way to grow the service." Habbo will provide a set of APIs to developers along with rule sets to help them develop specifically for Habbo's audience. Habbo also plans to share their data on the user base. "We've opened up our business intelligence," said LaFontaine. "The way teens like to use the site, the different types of activities that they enjoy. We'll show them all the data we've collected and steer them in the right direction. We have a full business intelligence team that I think is gold standard. We've got terabytes of data on user behavior, and all of that will be available for developers so they can create a great game." Armed with that information, LaFontaine expects developers to develop different kinds of game mechanics around that specific set of teens. "We're a real-time service, so it's synchronous. We have chat, real-time moderated chat, so game play can be different," LaFontaine noted. Habbo is actually encouraging developers to engage directly with the users. "Absolutely," LaFontaine agreed. "We do this in Habbo, we're opening up behind the scenes and they are absolutely passionate about who makes the games. We have a group of 12 senior staff that tweet each evening with users. They ask questions about how things are made, and they really care. If it works for Habbo, it should work for developers." Perhaps the important question for developers is the revenue share; is it less of a cut than the 30% Facebook charges for Facebook Credits? LaFontaine isn't ready to reveal the number publicly just yet. "The revenue share is standard, and it's more advantageous than you'd find in other markets," he said. "We actually want to trigger a lot of activity and make this a great place to develop." Habbo plans to make announcements soon on partners who are developing for the site. Games should be able to appear swiftly once deals are struck, as modifications should be relatively minor. [/release]

pool closed due to aids

Pff, there's an instant messaging service called QQ, I bet the slogan is "Cry more!"

Habbo is the shit!

Oh man, I fucking loved habbo hotel back in the days.

I didn't know all these websites were located somewhere in the ocean.

I loved the event they used to do, the Habbowood, where you made your own movie scene. They've never done it since, was the best thing ever.

[QUOTE=Hans-Gunther 3.;35230724]Pff, there's an instant messaging service called QQ, I bet the slogan is "Cry more!"[/QUOTE] china for you where's all the russian social networks.

how the bobba do they still get so many users

[QUOTE=TrannyAlert;35230800]I loved the event they used to do, the Habbowood, where you made your own movie scene. They've never done it since, was the best thing ever.[/QUOTE] I miss that aswell. [editline]21st March 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Uber|nooB;35230817]how the bobba do they still get so many users[/QUOTE] Bobba got removed and replaced with ****, habbos faggotry now.

Yeah, Habbo has turned into a shit hole like alot of things on the internet now. Removed all the games and everything, I'd rather pay for them than go in peoples' shit rooms.

Not as good as Coke Music.

Ah, back in the days, 50€ well spent. [sp]Then somebody stole my account :([/sp]

Fucking loved Habbo, then the beta happened in June '09 and it turned to absolute shit.

I remember in secondary school this guy blew £150 worth of phone credit on Habbo items

[QUOTE=Hans-Gunther 3.;35230724]Pff, there's an instant messaging service called QQ, I bet the slogan is "Cry more!"[/QUOTE] don't knock QQ, where else are we going to get chinese webcam porn from?

Haha, its been like 7 years since i last went on that. Holy shit.

Habbo Hotel was my first MMO massive roleplaying game.

[QUOTE=Bat-shit;35230993]Habbo Hotel was my first MMO massive roleplaying game.[/QUOTE] Really? Do you happen to be 12?

[QUOTE=AceOfDivine;35231014]Really? Do you happen to be 12?[/QUOTE] [quote]FIRST[/quote] :|

I played the hell out of this game. All I remember now is that you had to pay to play any of the games. And the Habbo premium account elitism.

[QUOTE=AceOfDivine;35231014]Really? Do you happen to be 12?[/QUOTE] Really? It was mine as well. Habbo or Runescape, forget which, likely Habbo though.

I don't like how much they give out badges now. In the old days, badges were rare as fuck, I've got about 60 in my damn inventory now and they are all shite.

Habbo lost its fun when they removed player collision. I remember me and a friend blocking lots of people in the lobby pretending to be greenpeace cyber-protesters

I played Habbo hotel like 6-7 years ago. It was actually quite fun. Until I won a stool in a fair musical chairs game and the fucker decided to do it over again because "there was something shoddy about me". Later I was banned for no reason. I can log in again in 2021 :v:

I remember this game, I used to scam stuff from people by organizing these bullshit competitions where nobody actually got a prize when they won. I also wasted real money on this. I still regret it.

I once logged into my sister's account and stole all her stuff, then compromised with her and said she can have half of it back.

I connected to it back when dialup was still around. Huh. They seem to of deleted my accounts. :v:

Scamming was the best part. "Hey if u type ur username n password it gives u a free item, dw when you type ur password it cums up as stars, look. ********"

I've got to thank Habbo for being more protective of my passwords, got scammed once for both using a bad password and being far too trusting for my own good. A lesson well learned.