Zebroid
05-04-2008, 05:02 PM
Helsinki, Finland, 3 April 2008 - Habbo, the largest virtual world for teenagers, today unveiled the results of its second Global Habbo Youth Survey. Examining the interests, values, attitudes, online habits of a global audience, the survey reveals teens' current media usage, consumption behavior and brand preferences in order to better understand what compels youth around the world.
For the study, Habbo surveyed 58,486 teens between the ages 11 and 18 from 31 countries, and identified five clearly defined behavioral segments amongst the respondents. With each group representing approximately one-fifth of the total teens surveyed, the five groups were categorized and described as the following:
• Achievers: Ambitious, strong minded and materialistic. They value material success and whilst having lots of friends do not consider other people's feelings as much as other segments
• Rebels: Value gathering lots of experiences in life and enjoy a fast-paced lifestyle. Like Achievers they want to become “rich and famous”, but they are not willing to compromise on having fun in order to achieve this goal
• Traditionals: Value having an ordinary life and see themselves as honest, polite and obedient. They are keen to help others but are less ambitious and pleasure seeking compared to other segments
• Creatives: Share many of the same positive traits as Traditionals, but with a focus on creativity. They place value in getting a good education and being influential in life, but they are also active, social and have an interest in travelling
• Loners: More introverted and less likely than other segments to identify with any specific personality traits. They rarely see themselves as active or self-assured, but are more open minded in their attitudes compared to Traditionals or Achievers
A major focus of the survey was how teens communicate today. 76 per cent of teens globally use the internet to Instant Message friends. Overall, Instant Messaging is the most popular communication tool in most of the countries. Though 72 per cent of teens still hold active email accounts, the majority of communication with peers is no longer conducted over email. The survey revealed that email is generally reserved by teens more for non-personal needs such as school or work, or correspondence with family members.
“According to the Global Habbo Youth Survey, the most popular global websites amongst teens are YouTube and MySpace,” said Emmi Kuusikko, Director of User and Market Insight for Sulake, Habbo's parent company “Of those surveyed, 50 percent responded that they forward humorous links and videos to their friends, while 30 percent regularly upload content, confirming the notion that teenagers have an active online presence.”
“Perhaps surprisingly social networks appear as relatively low online priorities for young people, as 40 per cent of teens do not view social networks as an important part of their online experience on a global basis. This is due to the English-language bias of most social networks but considering Habbo's global success this also suggests that the localisation of sites is important for teens communicating online. In countries where social networks are considered popular though they have become a regular communication channel between friends.”
Habbo has worked in partnership with leading brands that enter the virtual world to engage creatively with teens online. The survey showed that brand familiarity clearly affects teens' choices as consumers, with 74 percent saying that familiar brands guide their purchasing decisions. Reinforcing the brand familiarity findings, global well-known brands, such as McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Nokia ranked high for both boys and girls. Gender differences are more visible for example in clothing brands. According to the results, boys favor Nike, Adidas and Billabong as their top clothing brands, whereas girls preferred Hennes and Mauritz, Nike and Roxy.
A report of the Global Habbo Youth Survey 2008 is available to buy as a hard copy book of 250 pages. For inquiries and orders, please contact: [email protected] ([email protected])
Further survey results on different topics will be published in the sulake.com blog in the following weeks. The first blog concerns mobile phone usage among youth, you can read it here (http://www.sulake.com/blog/entries/2008-04-03-Global_Habbo_Youth_Survey-mobile.html).
About the research
The research was conducted within the virtual world, Habbo, and the total number of respondents (after data cleaning) was 58, 486. The research was conducted between October and November 2007. 31 countries were surveyed and statistical weighting was employed to give all participating countries an equal weight in the global results. The results of the research are available on request.
For the study, Habbo surveyed 58,486 teens between the ages 11 and 18 from 31 countries, and identified five clearly defined behavioral segments amongst the respondents. With each group representing approximately one-fifth of the total teens surveyed, the five groups were categorized and described as the following:
• Achievers: Ambitious, strong minded and materialistic. They value material success and whilst having lots of friends do not consider other people's feelings as much as other segments
• Rebels: Value gathering lots of experiences in life and enjoy a fast-paced lifestyle. Like Achievers they want to become “rich and famous”, but they are not willing to compromise on having fun in order to achieve this goal
• Traditionals: Value having an ordinary life and see themselves as honest, polite and obedient. They are keen to help others but are less ambitious and pleasure seeking compared to other segments
• Creatives: Share many of the same positive traits as Traditionals, but with a focus on creativity. They place value in getting a good education and being influential in life, but they are also active, social and have an interest in travelling
• Loners: More introverted and less likely than other segments to identify with any specific personality traits. They rarely see themselves as active or self-assured, but are more open minded in their attitudes compared to Traditionals or Achievers
A major focus of the survey was how teens communicate today. 76 per cent of teens globally use the internet to Instant Message friends. Overall, Instant Messaging is the most popular communication tool in most of the countries. Though 72 per cent of teens still hold active email accounts, the majority of communication with peers is no longer conducted over email. The survey revealed that email is generally reserved by teens more for non-personal needs such as school or work, or correspondence with family members.
“According to the Global Habbo Youth Survey, the most popular global websites amongst teens are YouTube and MySpace,” said Emmi Kuusikko, Director of User and Market Insight for Sulake, Habbo's parent company “Of those surveyed, 50 percent responded that they forward humorous links and videos to their friends, while 30 percent regularly upload content, confirming the notion that teenagers have an active online presence.”
“Perhaps surprisingly social networks appear as relatively low online priorities for young people, as 40 per cent of teens do not view social networks as an important part of their online experience on a global basis. This is due to the English-language bias of most social networks but considering Habbo's global success this also suggests that the localisation of sites is important for teens communicating online. In countries where social networks are considered popular though they have become a regular communication channel between friends.”
Habbo has worked in partnership with leading brands that enter the virtual world to engage creatively with teens online. The survey showed that brand familiarity clearly affects teens' choices as consumers, with 74 percent saying that familiar brands guide their purchasing decisions. Reinforcing the brand familiarity findings, global well-known brands, such as McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Nokia ranked high for both boys and girls. Gender differences are more visible for example in clothing brands. According to the results, boys favor Nike, Adidas and Billabong as their top clothing brands, whereas girls preferred Hennes and Mauritz, Nike and Roxy.
A report of the Global Habbo Youth Survey 2008 is available to buy as a hard copy book of 250 pages. For inquiries and orders, please contact: [email protected] ([email protected])
Further survey results on different topics will be published in the sulake.com blog in the following weeks. The first blog concerns mobile phone usage among youth, you can read it here (http://www.sulake.com/blog/entries/2008-04-03-Global_Habbo_Youth_Survey-mobile.html).
About the research
The research was conducted within the virtual world, Habbo, and the total number of respondents (after data cleaning) was 58, 486. The research was conducted between October and November 2007. 31 countries were surveyed and statistical weighting was employed to give all participating countries an equal weight in the global results. The results of the research are available on request.