Seen in Contagious Magazine
To gain an insight into what those elusive teens think and what they spend time doing online, Habbo has conducted its Global Youth Survey, questioning 58,000 teens aged 11-18 over 31 countries, including Europe, US and Latin America.
Emmi Kuusikko, director of user and market insight at Sulake, the company behind Habbo, highlighted some of the key trends from the survey for Contagious. The objective of the research was to understand teens, their lives and motivations, including media usage. Teens are becoming increasingly web savvy, with instant messaging the top way of staying in touch with friends online, used by 76% of respondents. Alternatively, although still important, email has seen a dip in usage, although 72% of teens still hold accounts. Its usage is favoured for more ‘official’ communications with parents and employers.
Mobile has seen the biggest and most exciting growth since Habbo’s previous survey in 2006, with phones being increasingly used as entertainment devices – 71% of teens now listen to music via their mobile, compared to only 38% in 2006. Similarly, 70% use their mobiles to take photos and video, up 11% from 2006 and 64% play games via the mobile, up 14% from the previous survey. Mobile’s more exciting functions for brands, including surfing the net, emailing and sending instant messages, and used by over a quarter of teens. In the UK, mobile leader in the US and Europe, these increases are even more significant. Nokia remains the number one mobile brand globally, but its position is threatened by Sony Ericsson and Samsung – in the UK, the brand has slipped to 3rd most popular below its rivals.
Social networking’s proliferation has been hampered, particularly in Latin American countries, due to the dominance of English-langauge social networking sites, suggesting that localised social network sites.
is important for teens. 40% of the teens did not view social networks as an important part of their communication experience.
Brand-wise, although the teens like to experiment with their choices, brand familiiarity is still a big draw, placing old favourites like Nike and Converse at the top of the teens lists of shoe brands, while seeing newcomers such as Bench and Primark break into the top five clothing brands.
From the results, Habbo broke down typical teen web users into five typical personality types, which were evenly split around the globe, although there were variations from country to country.
Achievers made up 35% of the UK’s teen population, at the expense of the traditional group. Their characteristics are ambitious, strong minded and materialistic, valuing material wealth and success, with a lot of friends despite their more self-centred personalitities.
Rebels have the greatest urge to gain independence and stand for things other than their parents. They are not willing to compromise on having fun and gaining experiences in their fast-paced lives but are still ambitious, aiming to become rich and famous.
Traditionals value ordinary life and see themselves as honest, polite and obedient. This group is keen to help others and are less ambitious and hedonistic compared to other groups.
Creative teens share the positive traits of traditionals, but focus on creativity, valuing education and being influential amongst their peers, while being active, enjoying socialising and travelling.
Loners are the most introverted group, with less real world friends, and the internet playing a larger role in their social lives. They tend to have fewer interests but are deeply involved in them. Although not seeing themselves as active or self-assured, they are more open minded than Traditionals and Achievers.
http://www.sulake.com/blog/entries/2008-04-03-Global_Habbo_Youth_Survey-mobile.html
