Mining Virtual Worlds for Market Research

Sulake, creator of teen social-networking site Habbo, is drawing on its members across the globe to spot real-world trends

by Reena Jana

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Imagine asking 42,000 tech-savvy tweens and teenagers around the globe about their buying and spending habits, as well as their brand preferences. How long would it take to conduct such market research? If you wanted to zero in on kids who regularly played online games or engaged in networked communities in Web-based virtual worlds, how would your market-research team target them and then verify their activity in these online parallel universes?

Sulake, the Helsinki (Finland) company that created Habbo, a popular eight-year-old virtual world aimed at teens, found a way to survey more than 42,000 such consumers in 22 countries, by soliciting responses to questions about real-world global shopping preferences from Habbo avatars. Its first Global Habbo Youth Survey, conducted in association with Finnish market researcher 15/30, was published in the form of a 200-plus page report earlier this year, and it's now available to curious corporations for $5,000.

In September, Sulake will conduct a second survey, this time without an outside partner. The process of surveying teens on this massive, global scale via their avatars was so efficient, Habbo decided that there is no need for external help. "We found we could gather this data in about a week," says Emmi Kuusikko, director of user and market insight at Sulake. "It is extremely rewarding to carry out this quantitative research. The [teens] were so eager to participate. They were in their own environment, an environment they can trust."

Ozzy Osbourne Dropped By

Habbo is a cartoony virtual world where teens create retro, highly pixelated alter egos. They can meet up in public spaces, build and participate in social networks, listen to streaming music, and also create their own rooms and furnish them with digital versions of furniture and doodads that they pay real money for. Celebrities also enter Habbo as avatars: Heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne and pop star Lily Allen have visited Habbo's British site, while BMX champion Matt Hoffman's avatar hung out in the U.S. site. And major corporations including Nintendo (NTDOF.PK) buy advertising space, such as a virtual billboards, or sponsor themed gathering spots for avatars, such as Target's (TGT) Red Sky Lounge. To date, 76 million avatars have been created since Habbo opened in 1999. By contrast, 8.7 million avatars have been made in Second Life in its four-year life span.

In the past, Sulake had used data on flesh-and-blood Finnish teens gathered by youth market research specialist 15/30 to help identify real-life trends that they might apply to the design and development of Habbo sites. (There are different sites for various countries; teens in 29 nations worldwide log onto language-specific Habbo sites each day.) And Sulake also conducts panels within Habbo to receive feedback and ideas on game-play in Habbo games, as well as on elements of the virtual world's home page design.

But then Sulake realized it could tap its millions of avatars for information on real-life teen trends around the world. "We wanted to focus on how users are behaving and how they are buying. At first, we thought we would simply use [the information] for internal purposes, for product development," says Kuusikko. "Then we saw that we could do global research about teens' lives." So Sulake and 15/30 solicited respondents in 22 nations across Europe, North America, and Asia by sending a message to their avatars, which users received when they logged into their accounts. This linked to an external, Web-based questionnaire. The scope of the responses exceeded all expectations.

An International Portrait of Teens Today

Participants spent an average of 33 minutes answering dozens of questions on their backgrounds, tastes, and their shopping and media consumption habits. Participants were given a reward of Habbo credits to purchase virtual goods in Habbo.