Nowadays, the average Habbo user (or “Habbo”) uses it as more than simply a distraction from homework. “I’d say that the core demographic is 20-plus.” “These days, it’s quite rare to actually talk to somebody under the age of 18 on Habbo,” Pulx said. The Habbo power user Pulx, who was elected its “president of fun” in a platform-wide election last year and requested anonymity, has logged in almost every day since creating his account in 2005. It also helps that Habbo’s user base has grown up alongside it.
At the time, the platform’s shoddy moderation practices were par for the course for the early internet, and it soon developed a shady reputation, culminating in a 2012 VICE article titled “We Met a Pedophile on Habbo Hotel.” “The situation has changed a lot since 2010–2012,” García Guerra said, listing safety tools such as mute buttons, 24/7 monitoring and word filters blocking the sharing of personal information. At the moment, the platform boasts about 850,000 monthly active users and 320 million total accounts, according to Jorge García Guerra, a product owner at Azerion, a digital entertainment firm that acquired Habbo developer Sulake in January.ĭuring its heyday in the mid-2000s, Habbo was wildly popular among teens and early adolescents - including this Digiday reporter, who made an account as a 12-year-old in 2007. The platform allows users to socialize in virtual “hotels,” with public rooms accessible to all and private rooms that can be tricked out with custom-crafted digital items. Founded as Habbo Hotel in 2000, Habbo is an online community marked by pixelated avatars and items existing within an arcade-evoking isometric landscape.
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