In August 2012, Habbo announced its new hotel, Habbo Turkey, fully localised for Turkish-speakers. Two leading investors, Balderton Capital and 3i, withdrew their funding from Sulake, and some UK retailers stopped selling Habbo gift cards. A reporter posing as an 11-year-old girl claimed that explicit sex chats were common within minutes of logging on to the service, which she described as 'very sexual, perverse, violent, pornographic.' As a result of the allegations, Sulake immediately suspended all chat on the service. A two-month investigation found users posting pornographic and violent messages – despite the fact that Habbo is intended for young teenagers. In Jconcerns about the site were raised by Channel 4 News. Accounts were migrated to the final English-speaking hotel with varying degrees of automation until March 2011 - after that date any accounts not migrated from the initial Habbo Canada, Singapore, UK and Australia hotels were deleted. On June 10, the final Hotel, Habbo UK, was merged and that completed the set, making the only English speaking site. The Singapore site was officially merged on June 4. On June 2, the Australian site merge was completed. On May 5, the merger for Habbo US and Habbo Canada was complete. However, in April 2010, it was announced that all English-speaking hotels will be merged as one. In January 2010, it was announced that Habbo US and Habbo Canada would undergo a merger, to be finalized in April 2010. Those on the site with ' furni' (virtual furniture that can be used to furnish rooms in the hotel that are bought with the use of Habbo Credits or Coins, that can be purchased with actual money) have been told they will receive credit codes for use on the USA Habbo community. In December 2008, Habbo's Russian community announced it was closing in February 2009 as a result of low numbers. Customers in China were redirected to other Habbo communities. The challenging Chinese market and high operational costs led to the decision of closing the service. In August 2007, Habbo's Chinese community closed down temporarily, the first time a Habbo website has closed. In May 2006, the service, along with its domain names, were changed from (.co.uk. It has since been expanded to over 31 countries in five continents, including Hotelli Kultakala in Finland which was made into a Habbo Hotel and has been invested in by venture capitalists. The next hotel was launched in Switzerland a few months later, in four languages. It featured a new credits system with community and safety features. The new hotel exited beta a few weeks afterwards, aimed at the teenage market, with marketing and payment partners in place, run from a HQ in London. By the end of January 2001, Habbo Hotel had been launched in beta mode. It launched in August 2000 on the ISP's web portal.Īapo, Sampo and Dee Edwards, an entrepreneur from the UK, wanted to create an international business based on the virtual hotel concept, drafting a plan in Autumn 2000, and raised finance. Hotel Goldfish) with a small team of developers. After having been contracted to design a virtual game and chat called Lumisota (Snow Wars) for a Finnish internet service provider, they were contracted for another project. It was a virtual chat room running on Aapo's Fuse technology. Habbo stemmed from a 1999 hobby project by creative designer Sampo Karjalainen and technologist Aapo Kyrölä entitled Mobiles Disco, for a Finnish band.

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