Sampo Karjalainen

"Sampo Karjalainen is the co-founder and chief creative officer of Sulake. He is responsible for the concept, design, look and feel of the original versions of Mobiles Disco and Habbo Hotel. Mobiles Disco was the non-commercial predecessor of Habbo Hotel, which launched in the autumn of 1999, and was a browser-based graphical chat environment which became an online phenomenon within months. Keen to develop the concept further, Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrölä joined Helsinki-based advertising agency Taivas and developed the online game Lumisota (Snow War) with the agency. The campaign game was awarded 'The Most Innovative and Fun Web Application' prize at the 2000 Scandinavian Interactive Media Event (SIME). Habbo Hotel has since been localised for 17 countries and has become one of the most popular teen Web sites in the world. Since its launch, some 51 million Habbo 'characters' have been created. Today, Habbo as a brand is expanding into other platforms such as mobile, animation and merchandise.