Mark Pack

Cross-posted from the Mandate blog:

The news that Habbo Hotel, the extremely popular social network for teenagers, is launching a tie-up with Facebook is not only significant in itself but a sign of things to come.

It’s immediate significance is in ease and convenience: Facebook users will be able to use Habbo Hotel without having to register separately, users of both will be able to find their Facebook friends in Habbo Hotel and actions in the latter will be shared back with the former.

Beyond the immediate convenience, this tie-up signifies two bigger trends. First, for many people the story involves one familiar firm – Facebook – and one they may well not have heard of before.

Habbo Hotel’s popularity yet obscurity derives from the fact that it is very popular – with a very defined, niche audience (teenagers).  There is more to social networking that Facebook and Twitter, particularly when looking at specific audiences.

Second, hand in hand with enthusiasm for new services over the last few years have been complaints about information and management overload. Tying together different services in ways that avoid the need for separate registration and separate creation of networks of contacts has been with us for some time – as with the one Google Account permitting access to a range of different Google services.

As this trend develops, the battle to be the dominant hub will intensify. Facebook is staking out its ground, but Google, Microsoft and others want to be there too.