Boxiel
10-12-2007, 08:17 PM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2007/10/habbo_hotel_has_held_back_on_a.html
Why Habbo Hotel held back on a mobile version (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2007/10/habbo_hotel_has_held_back_on_a.html)
Jemima Kiss / Social networking / Virtual worlds 01:48pm
Habbo Hotel (http://www.habbo.co.uk/), the social network-ish virtual world popular with early teens, has reached 6.5m unique users each month, though a total of total of 80m have signed up with the site since it launched in 2000.
In an interview with E-consultancy, chief executive Timo Soininen says the site's success in attracting brands to the space has been because it offers an "immersive environment", whereas Second Life offers what he describes as "an iceberg model".
"The real bit is below the surface. In the visible bit, 'Brand X' will create a virtual venue, but you can only fit a certain amount of people into a virtual venue," said Soininen.
"What can be very scaleable, and what persuades brands to do repeat activities with us, is when you go deep into the community and become part of the users' rooms and activities, sponsoring a game or arranging a quest. They become a topic inside the environment and really add value to the user. That, in a nutshell, is what you need to do."
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/images/habbo2oct2007-tm.jpg (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/images/habbo2oct2007.jpg)
On opening up virtual world platforms, Soininen says Raph Koster (http://www.raphkoster.com/)'s approach of a completely open source virtual world is interesting, but will make it hard to be visually cohesive.
"We have been using very simplified pixel graphics, and have never been big fans of creating replicas of the real world as that basically destroys the illusion inside your head.
"Our approach, from the beginning, has been to give some props and tools to allow users to express themselves, and they have used them to create mash-ups. There is some pretty exciting stuff. Third parties - not just users - will be able to create stuff, but it will be a mash-up of using web technologies and client technologies as well."
Habbo will be launching some new tools so that users can build props and accessories themselves, but wants to retina some kind of quality control over what ends up in the environment and will moderate what is built.
Habbo has had significant success in getting users to pay for add ons, like furniture in their virtual rooms. The secret to that, beyond consumer appetite, is in having multiple payment methods - Habbo has 160, he says, including scratch cards, credit card payments and premium SMS. Mobile payments will become much more mainstream, he predicts.
Habbo has held back launch of its own mobile product because of concerns over data costs and the quality of the user experience on mobiles, he said.
"That is changing rapidly now. We also have recently launched what I think is one of the few virtual mobile worlds out there, called minifriday.com, and we have around 110,000 registered users in it already.
"Check it out. It's pretty cool. We will probably use the technology for another couple of projects."
Why Habbo Hotel held back on a mobile version (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2007/10/habbo_hotel_has_held_back_on_a.html)
Jemima Kiss / Social networking / Virtual worlds 01:48pm
Habbo Hotel (http://www.habbo.co.uk/), the social network-ish virtual world popular with early teens, has reached 6.5m unique users each month, though a total of total of 80m have signed up with the site since it launched in 2000.
In an interview with E-consultancy, chief executive Timo Soininen says the site's success in attracting brands to the space has been because it offers an "immersive environment", whereas Second Life offers what he describes as "an iceberg model".
"The real bit is below the surface. In the visible bit, 'Brand X' will create a virtual venue, but you can only fit a certain amount of people into a virtual venue," said Soininen.
"What can be very scaleable, and what persuades brands to do repeat activities with us, is when you go deep into the community and become part of the users' rooms and activities, sponsoring a game or arranging a quest. They become a topic inside the environment and really add value to the user. That, in a nutshell, is what you need to do."
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/images/habbo2oct2007-tm.jpg (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/images/habbo2oct2007.jpg)
On opening up virtual world platforms, Soininen says Raph Koster (http://www.raphkoster.com/)'s approach of a completely open source virtual world is interesting, but will make it hard to be visually cohesive.
"We have been using very simplified pixel graphics, and have never been big fans of creating replicas of the real world as that basically destroys the illusion inside your head.
"Our approach, from the beginning, has been to give some props and tools to allow users to express themselves, and they have used them to create mash-ups. There is some pretty exciting stuff. Third parties - not just users - will be able to create stuff, but it will be a mash-up of using web technologies and client technologies as well."
Habbo will be launching some new tools so that users can build props and accessories themselves, but wants to retina some kind of quality control over what ends up in the environment and will moderate what is built.
Habbo has had significant success in getting users to pay for add ons, like furniture in their virtual rooms. The secret to that, beyond consumer appetite, is in having multiple payment methods - Habbo has 160, he says, including scratch cards, credit card payments and premium SMS. Mobile payments will become much more mainstream, he predicts.
Habbo has held back launch of its own mobile product because of concerns over data costs and the quality of the user experience on mobiles, he said.
"That is changing rapidly now. We also have recently launched what I think is one of the few virtual mobile worlds out there, called minifriday.com, and we have around 110,000 registered users in it already.
"Check it out. It's pretty cool. We will probably use the technology for another couple of projects."