Sulake
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sulake | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | Private |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Founder | Sampo Karjalainen Aapo Kyrölä |
| Headquarters | Helsinki, Finland |
| Area served | 29 Countries [1] |
| Key people | Timo Soininen, CEO Juha Hynynen, COO |
| Industry | Teen Social Networking |
| Products | Habbo Hotel Mini Friday IRC-Galleria |
| Revenue | ▲$77,000,000 (2006)[2] |
| Employees | 300 |
| Website | http://www.sulake.com/ |
Sulake (Finnish pronunciation [ˈsu.lɑ.ke], Finnish for fuse) is a multi-million dollar multimedia company based in Helsinki, Finland. It was founded by Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrölä in 2000. Sulake's main focus is virtual worlds, casual multiplayer games and social networking. The corporation's CEO is Timo Soininen, also from Finland.
The company's first project, Mobiles Disco, was intended to promote a Finnish rap group called Mobiles in 1999. As the site grew in popularity, the (Finnish) rooms were swamped with foreigners, so a English international version was created. This made Karjalainen and Kyrölä wonder about possibilities for financial success. Sulake then sold the concept to the Finnish telecom giant Elisa Oyj through the advertising agency Taivas.
Karjalainen and Kyrölä then created an online multiplayer game called Lumisota (Snow Wars). The game is similar and is now what Habbo's Snow Storm game is based on. The game was a further success and became associated with Radiolinja, a Finnish telecommunications network, which Elisa Oyj has invested in.
Sulake then was approached by clients, such as Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom and Coke Music, which is now known as MyCoke. Karjalainen and Kyrölä assisted their clients with these projects, but now Sulake's main focus is Habbo Hotel.
In August 2000,Hotelli Kultakala (Hotel Goldfish) was launched as part of Elisa's portal, which is now the foundation release of Habbo Finland.
Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 EMEA list ranks Sulake as the 12th fastest growing technology company in Europe.[3]
In April 2007, Sulake acquired Dynamoid Oy, the company behind the virtual community IRC-Galleria.
Contents |
[edit] Employment and Offices
Sulake has 18 offices in different countries around the globe, with their headquarters (HQ) in Helsinki, Finland. The national offices are responsible for running the community of each hotel. Overall, Sulake employ around 300 Sulake, IRC-Galleria, and Habbo Staff, plus an additional 200 in-game Habbo Hotel Moderators.
[edit] Projects
- The Sulake company provides Habbo in 30 countries, with an estimated revenue of $77,000,000 for 2006.[2] Sulake earns this revenue via four methods; selling in-game credits, website advertisement and sponsorship and Habbo-related merchandise.
- Coke Music
- The first incarnation of chat environment within Coke Music (now MyCoke), CokeStudios, was designed by Sulake. The most recent version (v2.x) of CokeStudios was programmed exclusively by MyCoke's operators, StudioCom.
- The Wreck Room
- "The Wreck Room" is a mini-game by Disney for the promotion of their 2003 movie Holes. The game design was based from Habbo.[5]
- MiniFriday is a small research project on virtual worlds on mobile phones, with concept and design by Sulake.
- IRC-Galleria is the largest WWW-based virtual community in Finland. It was founded in December 2000 by Tomi Lintelä as a photo gallery for the Finnish users of Internet Relay Chat (IRC). It was acquired by Sulake along with its previous owner, Dynamoid Oy on April 2007. As of February 2007, IRC-galleria boasts over 400,000 registered users and 6 million images.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Sulake: Habbo. Sulake Corporation Oy.
- ^ a b Habbox: Sulake. Habbox.
- ^ Sulake ranks as the 12th fastest growing technology company in Europe. Sulake Corporation Oy (2006-11-29).
- ^ Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom: Developer Credits. Disney.
- ^ Holes on DVD --Official Website. Disney.
- ^ IRC-Galleria. Dynamoid Oy.
[edit] External links
- Sulake — official website
