Finnish Engineering Award presented to Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrölä
- the creators of the virtual Habbo Hotel gaming community
HELSINKI, Finland, May 31, 2006 - Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrölä, the creators of
the virtual Habbo Hotel gaming community, have been awarded this year's Finnish Engineering Award
this year. The Finnish Association of Graduate Engineers, TEK, and Tekniska Föreningen i Finland,
TFiF, granted the 20,000 euro award for developing and commercializing the software technology of
Finnish computer games. The award winners have developed the Habbo Hotel gaming community and
product family, and established Sulake Corporation Oy, the company, which manages the brand.
Habbo Hotel is a virtual gaming community operating in 18 countries on five different
continents. There are already over 50 million registered Habbo characters and over 7.1 million
users visit the hotel every month. Habbo Hotel is particularly designed for 13 to 16 year-olds; in
fact the largest user group consists of teenagers. Precise Habbo Way etiquette, which promotes good
behavior and non-violence, is followed within Habbo Hotel.
Sulake's head office is located in Helsinki and there are also offices in 17 other
countries. The company, established in 2000, employs 270 workers world-wide and 170 in Finland. The
company's turnover was nearly 30 million euros in 2005. Currently, the Habbo brand is being
expanded into mobile games and content, animation production and different real world products.
According to the jury, the software concept has been quickly utilized and commercialized in
the developing international markets and the project has shown innovation and technological
expertise. Habbo Hotel was created with personally developed, Java-based FUSE technology. The
technological implementation demonstrates the skills of the creators, e.g. scaling works fluently
supporting an environment full of simultaneous users. The award is also recognition of the know-how
of the software technology for computer games created in Finland in recent years.
The Finnish Engineering Award is annually presented to a person or a team that has greatly
advanced technical expertise in Finland. Creative effort, originality and practical implementation
of an idea or theory are distinctive features of winning engineering works. Economic viewpoints
also receive attention in the assessment. The award was presented for the first time in 1981.
The Finnish Engineering Award was presented this year in Helsinki on 31st of May.
For more information, please contact:
Sulake Corporation Oy, Communications Director Paula Biveson, tel. +358 9 681 22 70
TEK, Unit Director Pekka Pellinen, tel. +358 9 229 121