If your audience includes teens, you might want to check out what Habbo has learned in their survey of over 50,000 teens worldwide, with insight into how US teenagers are similar to – and different from – teenagers worldwide in this research presentation from Digital Media Wire’s LA Games Conference 2008.

The 2008 Global Habbo Youth Survey
Emmi Kuusikko, Director, User & Market Insight, Sulake Corporation / Habbo Hotel

Habbo is an online entertainment company focused on virtual worlds, with 1300 employees in 15 countries, and over 8 million unique visitors per month globally. Their teen users create avatars, visit different public rooms, and engage in a lot of social interaction. There are active communities in 31 countries. This is the second global survey performed by Habbo.

Here’s what they learned:

US teenagers vs. peers globally.
(US sample size 7,730 respondents, 13-18 year-olds, 46% girls, 54% boys; globally 58,500 responses).

What’s similar:

• Friends and family are valued the most
• Craving for respect

What’s unique

• Having lots of difference experiences in life
• More traditional than Europe, less so than Mexico (religion, marriage)
• With Singapore, most ambitious teenagers – many life goals (education, wealth, influence, career)
• More positive attitudes toward military, very patriotic, but not visible in consumption behavior (don’t prefer domestic products)
• Higher share of “creatives” and “achievers” psychographic segments, fewer “loners”

Media habits

90% globally consider internet important, clear winner.
70% US consider TV important.
56% US consider radio important, significantly higher than global.

Internet habits

IM and Email are till most important web services (68%), but social networking has taken a lot of share (56%), especially compared to the rest of the world. Internet is really all about communicating and socializing.

Favorite web sites and games (outside of Habbo): MySpace (54%), YouTube (25%)

Brands

Drinks: Coca Cola (22%), then Pepsi
Fast Food: McDonald’s (27%), then Burger King and Wendy’s
Clothing: Hollister (8%), then Abercrombie & Fitch. Nike dropped to 9th!
Shoes: Nike (26%), then Vans and Converse
Mobile: Verizon (21%), then all others. US doesn’t distinguish between carriers and handset makers. Biggest growth in this category – listening to music, taking photos, SMS.

Summary

Teens are surprisingly similar worldwide

There are cultural differences, though, and US teens are more ambitious and crave experiences and respect (but note that Japan is even more different than the rest

Internet is important, and US teens lead in social use of internet.

To buy: webstore.sulake.com, marketinginsight@sulake.com

[tags]LA Games Conference 2008, Market Research, Habbo, Teens, Media Behavior, Internet Behavior[/tags]