Sulake

In 1999 Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrölä built a small pixel chat as a promotion for a Finnish band, and out of it grew Habbo, launched in 2000 by the newly formed Sulake in Helsinki. The concept was simple: a pixel avatar, a room to furnish and a chat box. The money came from virtual furniture bought with real cash, a business model the whole mobile games industry later adopted as standard.

At its peak Habbo ran separate hotels in a long list of countries. In 2006 it became the target of organised raids from 4chan, whose avatars blocked the pool and announced that it was closed. In 2012 a British TV investigation exposed widespread grooming in the chat; Sulake shut it down temporarily and lost both users and staff. The Dutch company Azerion bought it in 2018.