"Hangout for Teens."
— Slogan
Habbo (formerly known as Habbo Hotel) is a social networking service that was initially released in Finland in the year 2000. Over time, more countries began to open their own servers to the point that there are currently nine different hotels, and over 270 Million users (as of August 2012). Habbo is targeted for teenagers age 13 to 18 years old.
Players were allowed to customize their avatar, create rooms for themselves, and interact with other players. There are also games that people can play, whether they're official or user-made.
As of December 2020, Sulake released a beta of Habbo in the Unity engine due to the discontinuation of Adobe Flash.
List of current Hotels
- Brazil (February 2006 - present)
- English (May 2010 - present)
- Finland (September 2000 - present)
- France (November 2004 - present)
- Germany (March 2004 - present)
- Italy (November 2003 - present)
- Netherlands (February 2004 - present)
- Spain (called Haddoz) (September 2003 - present)
- Turkey (August 2012 - present)
List of Former Hotels
- Australia (November 2004- June 2010)*
- Canada (June 2004 - May 2010)*
- China (July 2006 - August 2007) (Closed due to bankruptcy, noted to be the first branch to close)
- Denmark (December 2004 - April 2015)
- Japan (February 2003 - April 2009) (Closed due to low user-base)
- Malaysia (Date Unknown - June 2010)*
- Norway (June 2004 - April 2015)
- Russia (October 2006 - February 2009)
- Singapore (December 2004 - June 2010)*
- Sweden (December 2003 - April 2015)
- Switzerland (August 2001 - September 2010)**
- United Kingdom (January 2001 - June 2010)*
- United States (September 2004- May 2010) *
*Merged to form one Hotel for English speakers. Initially, USA and Canada merged in May 2010.
**Merged with Habbo Germany to form one Hotel for German speakers.
The Wiki Rule applies as you can see it here.
Tropes associated with Habbo
- Allegedly Free Game: While it is free to join, you need real money to get Coins (or Credits in some places) to buy furniture.
- An Interior Designer Is You: You can make and decorate hotel rooms.
- Bigger on the Inside: The many hotels when shown from the outside is more akin to a skyscraper, but the many different rooms players can create makes of different shapes and sizes can make the hotel look bigger.
- Freemium: Members can join up for free. However Habbo Club as a lot more features going for it (more clothing options, exclusive areas, and exclusive furniture to name a few), however, it's a monthly subscription. There was also another membership service known as VIP, which was more expensive and offered more benefits. At one point it replaced Habbo Club, however in 2013, Habbo Club returned after VIP is closed.
- Fun with Autocensors: Most profanity is filtered with the word "bobba" in the old days. It's been replaced with generic asterisks.
- Isometric Projection: How visiting the rooms looked.
- Long Runner: Habbo Finland is currently the longest hotel running since 2000. Habbo UK would've been a close second before the merge of the English speaking Hotels.
- Series Mascot: Frank the doorman, who serves as the face of Habbo Hotel and appeared regularly on the site.
- Special Guest: Sometimes celebrities would often make appearances on Habbo for special occasions. For example, Gorillaz appearing in the June of 2007 to promote the then-recent single Dare.
