[3] Habbo stemmed from a 1999 hobby project by creative designer Sampo Karjalainen and technologist Aapo Kyrölä entitled Mobiles Disco, for a Finnish band.

Kyrölä, Karjalainen 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.

It has since been expanded to over 31 countries in five continents, with Hotelli Kultakala being rebranded as a local Habbo hotel, and has been invested in by venture capitalists.

[11] On 10 June, the final hotel, Habbo UK, was merged and that completed the set, making Habbo.com the international, English-speaking game.

[14][15] A two-month investigation found users posting pornographic and violent messages – despite the fact that Habbo is intended for children and young adults.

A reporter posing as an 11-year-old girl claimed that explicit sex chats were common within minutes of logging on to the game,[16] which she described as "very sexual, perverse, violent, pornographic.

[16] Speaking in a blog post, chief executive of Sulake, Paul LaFontaine, said that the firm "was reviewing the long-term plans for the Habbo community".

[18] Two leading investors, Balderton Capital and 3i, withdrew their funding from Sulake,[17][19] and some UK retailers stopped selling Habbo gift cards.

In the official statement from the product owner, he acknowledged that the Unity client was lacking key features and did not reflect the needs of the community.

[28] In 2021, Azerion reached an agreement with fellow Sulake shareholder Elisa Oyj to acquire the company fully.

[30] Habbo joined a block within Azerion’s gaming content business which consists of other leading acclaimed products, including Woozworld and Governor of Poker.

Currently in an alpha test phase, Habbo X is a game that focuses on community building, interoperability, and play-and-earn mechanics.

[citation needed] Habbo's main feature is the "hotel", and consists of a client made using the Unity platform.

Most Public Rooms contain automated bots (non-player characters) that shout pre-recorded messages and tips, and can give avatars drinks and food items.

Guest rooms can be created by any member and can be locked to allow access only to specific users or password holder.

[38] Habbo users often create guest rooms which emulate real world businesses, police departments and other establishments.

Habbo's parent company Sulake has automated online moderation, and only house Community Coordinators are available for all hotels.

Habbo stated in 2011 that the in-game moderators were tasked with tracking some 70 million lines of conversation worldwide every day, and blocking inappropriate users and filtering links to black-listed sites.

[43] Sulake also worked with child safety organizations and local police forces to stop inappropriate behavior.

Habbo's moderation and safety systems were recognized as making the service as one of the safest social networks in a 2011 European Commission report.

[43] As well as working within the Habbo online community, Sulake actively contributed to campaigns like Insafe and Safer Internet Day[46] to be used on relevant user safety issues and collaborates in more than 30 charitable partnerships around the world to educate teens about a load of topics including safe internet use, trolling, the dangers of drugs, bullying etc.

On 31 December 2005, Sulake suspended the Hobba program completely due to major security issues and the rapidly growing Habbo community.

[49] The following requests for the program to be revived, in June 2012, it was announced that modernized Hobbas, called Guardians, would be introduced into Habbo.

[56] Following this, launching The Great Go-Live, Habbo lifted the chat restrictions for Finnish users to allow testing on a new safety system.

[55] Chat restrictions were lifted for users in Brazil and Spain, followed by France, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands.

[60] In 2006, a meme began circulating on 4chan boards regarding racist conduct by Habbo moderators and arbitrary banning of players with darker-skinned avatars.

As a result, users signed up to the Habbo site dressed in avatars of a black man wearing a grey suit and an Afro hairstyle (usually known as the nigra; see Patriotic Nigras) and blocked entry to the pool, declaring that it was "closed due to AIDS",[60] flooding the site with internet sayings, and forming swastika-like formations.

In January 2021, the live-streamer Quackity and his viewers raided the game with the hashtag "#NOTMYHABBO", protesting the recent restrictions on item trading.

[68] In November 2001, The Daily Telegraph listed Habbo as a top-10 chat and instant messaging site, describing it as "great-looking" and "proving popular with teenagers.

[71][72] Common Sense Media, a non-profit association advocating for children and families, and studying the effects that media and technology have on young users, reports that foul talk and sexy chat rooms dominate [this] virtual world, giving it one star out of five and not recommending it for kids of any age.