FRESH NETWORKS BLOG — Habbo, the world’s largest teenage online community, has recently celebrated its tenth birthday, proving that sustainable success can be achieved with  online communities. The first version of Habbo was rolled out in August 2000, followed by an English-language beta version in January 2001. Ten years on, Habbo (previously known as "Habbo Hotel") has a staggering 176 million registered users, with 15 million unique visitors per month. In the UK alone it reaches 15% of the total teenage audience and receives more than 1.1 million unique visitors per month. So what lies behind Habbo’s success?...

MEDIAPOST — People are leaving Facebook. Inside Facebook recently reported reputable statistics demonstrating a decline in the number of 18- to 44-year-old active users in the U.S. in June -- particularly 26 to 34 year olds. And they don't think it's a hiccup. "In the years we've been tracking the demographic data, we've rarely seen a dip like this, so we would tend to favor the idea of a root cause." One reason for the behavior change: privacy. The blog explained, "The age groups that logged a loss in June is also the one most likely to have paid attention to the privacy debates"...

EMARKETER — There’s no question of Facebook’s position at the top of the social networking space, and one thing that makes the site so powerful is that when it comes to social networking, a user’s friends must be users too. But among some teens, Facebook may be losing its stickiness. According to a study from OTX and virtual fashion site Roiworld, nearly one in five teens with a Facebook profile had decreased or discontinued their use of the site as of April 2010...

READWRITEWEB — We know some of you may be saddened by the news of Facebook closing down its Gift Shop, but we have just one thing to say - good riddance to virtual junk. Whether it's a box of chocolates that you can't actually taste or a teddy bear you can't squeeze, you'll have to satiate all of your virtual cravings over the coming weeks because, come August 1st, these imaginary offerings will be no more. The one question everyone is asking, however, is why would Facebook close down a venture that sells imaginary, low-to-no overhead items for real-world money?...

ALL FACEBOOK — This evening Facebook announced that they will officially kill the company’s gift shop on August 1st of this year. Currently generating tens of millions of dollars for the company a year, one has to wonder why the company would take such dramatic steps. Facebook regularly touts how few developers run each segment of their business, but even if the company was generating tens of millions on a couple of developers, apparently more can be generated with the small gifts team working on other projects. So what does this really mean?...