Habbo Hotel is a virtual community aimed at teenagers and owned and operated by Sulake Corporation that combines the two concepts of a chat room and an online game. The original conception of Habbo Hotel, Mobiles Disco, was created as a small project by two Finnish men, Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrölä.[1]
The chatrooms that make up each Hotel are large, computer-generated graphics that use isometric projection. The game is centered around Habbos, virtual representations of its members. Each character has a different name, and is identified solely by this name. The service's other focus point is virtual furniture which is often called furni by players', which can be bought by players using credits via a variety of payment methods, including (but not limited to) SMS, home phone, pre-paid cards, credit card and money order. This furniture and the credits used to buy them can also be traded between users.
The game also is centered around The Habbo Way, which are the standards and rules which all Habbo users are expected to follow. Users are urged to report any breach of it using a system which send an alert to the Website's moderators.
The service began in 2000 and has expanded to 29 countries,[2] the latest community opening in Russia. As of December 2006, over 66 million Habbos have been created worldwide and there are 7 million unique visitors to the virtual hotels around the world every month.[3]