European Habbo Hotel comes to Canada

CHUM Ltd. is extending its community focus into cyberspace with a new virtual reality world that has already enjoyed good success in Europe. On June 28, the company’s interactive arm and Sulake Canada Inc. announced the introduction in this country of the Habbo Hotel. The venture will work on a revenue-sharing basis with CHUM Interactive sharing in money spent by users on their virtual domiciles in return for promoting the site to MuchMusic viewers. Habbo Hotel is a European sensation with a community of 1.8 million registered users. It was first launched in August 2000 in Finland, and has grown since then to include sites in the U.K., Switzerland, Japan, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands and Germany. Within the site, guests use avatars to navigate a massive series of rooms each designed by the users themselves. They communicate via chat windows under a system of filtered and moderated discussion rules. Since the site is primarily aimed at younger users, the safety of online participants is a high concern, says Roma Khanna, VP of CHUM Interactive. "Obviously, it was important to us that they were using best practices," Khanna says. "We’re not risking the audience." The cool factor is over the top in the new site, which has Khanna excited. She hopes to see the same success in Canada that the site has enjoyed in Europe and elsewhere. "I think if you stopped a young person on the streets of Helsinki and asked them about it, they’d know what Habbo is." Says Sulake Canada’s parent Sulake Labs Inc.’s president Timo Soininen of the relationship; "Sulake has several years of experience and best practice in operating and managing online communities. In addition to this, we are constantly developing our community management practices, security and educational aspects of the game…This is a strategic partnership with CHUM for the Canadian market. Habbo provides a state-of-the-art online game and community of teenagers for MuchMusic. The fact that Habbo is a new type of easy-to-access, fun, non-violent and social content fitted CHUM’s own style of letting people come and visit their studios. This is why we also created two public areas mimicking CHUM’s and MuchMusic’s real premises." Revenue for the site is raised through the sale of such things as virtual furniture and special pay rooms, which users can buy using a credit card or various cash payment options such as PayPal or bank transfers. At last year’s nextMEDIA conference in Charlottetown, Soininen created a buzz during his keynote speech by describing the payment options in Europe, which include viable pre-paid card and wireless phone payment options. Mobile phone micro-payments aren’t an option, yet, for the Canadian site, though both Soininen and Khanna say they will be eventually. " mobile aspect is definitely coming. timing of that depends on the market infrastructure, commercial terms and consumer penetration and usage," Soininen writes to Canadian NEW MEDIA.

European Habbo Hotel comes to Canada

News | 07/13/2004 4:00 am EDT

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