Oprah gives Skype the Twitter treatment today: Will it help or hurt?
Filed under: Company News, Technology, Columns, People, Media
Oprah Winfrey, who has already been using Skype to interview guests who can't make it to her studio, is focusing her entire show today on Skype's phone service. "Where the Skype Are You?" is the title of today's program. She'll speak to guests from various locations, including the North Pole, inside a submarine and aboard a flying plane, according to the Wall Street Journal.
This uber (even for Oprah) Skype-hype begs the question: Does her blessing of Skype help it become a household product or does it ignite a backlash that its fans will equate with the service jumping the shark?
Certainly Skype, which has legions of fans --- 400 million worldwide -- has its technical problems, which are often visible on Oprah's show. She uses Skype to call guests, as she did the day she joined Twitter and gave Ashton Kutcher the opportunity to brag on air about how he beat CNN by being the first Twitter member to score one million followers.
Oprah sent her first Tweet and got all giddy when she was Tweeted back from Shaq, who gently told her to turn off her caps lock key. Ellen DeGeneres also Tweeted in return.
Hopefully Oprah will turn down the giddy and turn on her inner Mike Wallace and ask Skype president Josh Silverman about the glitches in his company's service when he is interviewed today on her show. Attempts to contact Silverman through Twitter and via his head of communications by DailyFinance were not returned prior to publication.
More people will undoubtedly try Skype after today's Oprah show. Most of them will not turn into long-time users if they find it to be difficult or buggy to use.
That said, Winfrey has a solid track record of endorsing not just books, but technology products as well. She
named Research in Motion's (RIMM) blackberry as one of her "favorite things" in 2003 and did a show on YouTube in 2007.
So Skype, which is owned by eBay (EBAY), will no doubt benefit near-term from its day in Oprah's sun today. The question is whether it will lead to greater long-term adoption of the service.
EBay has promised another big day for Skype next year when the company is spun out in a public offering. We'll soon find out if Oprah's blessing provides the momentum it needs to reach that landmark, or if it sparks a backlash that causes Skype to stall.
Anthony Massucci is a senior writer for DailyFinance. You may follow him on Twitter at hianthony.



























Reader Comments (Page 1 of 17)
5-21-2009 @ 4:16PM
Steve said...
Wow! This story is almost identical to this story on CNN:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/20/technology/oprah_skype/index.htm
And your story has no sources. I wonder where you got your information from? Great reporting from a "senior writer."
Reply
5-21-2009 @ 4:17PM
Steve said...
PS - The CNN story was up almost 3 hours before this one.
5-22-2009 @ 1:08PM
Tanya said...
um, yeah i didnt see the resemblance...
5-22-2009 @ 5:25PM
Jeff said...
SKYPE SUCKS...
5-21-2009 @ 4:25PM
Anthony Massucci said...
Steve,
I rushed to get this out before Oprah's show aired and did forget to cite my source: The Wall Street Journal.
I added it to the story.
Complete screw up on my part.
Thanks for pointing out. Sorry for the error.
-Anthony
Reply
5-22-2009 @ 6:31AM
Gomer said...
She should be indicted for plagiarism.
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5-22-2009 @ 11:21AM
Stopthehate said...
All the Oprah bashers are so obviously jealous! Ha ha, she is better than you in every way - smarter, kinder, richer, more generous. She thinks for herself and you hate her for it. When any of you haters come even close to her generosity or success, then you might have some credibility.
5-22-2009 @ 7:03AM
Sharon said...
Oprah has gotten so full of herself she makes me gag!!! She comes off as someone who is always right and DON'T YOU FORGET IT!! I haven't watched her for years cause she was acting so high and mighty and better than thou
Reply
5-22-2009 @ 8:55AM
Gloria said...
Oprah turned me off years ago, I would not watch her show if it were the only one on Television.
5-22-2009 @ 11:31AM
anne said...
you got it right!!! i don't watch her show. i have better things to do, like drown myself!!!
5-22-2009 @ 11:26AM
Pindragon said...
Oprha is a looser. Her show stinks, she thinks she is so importnat. She is full of self-importance.
I use Skype once in a while. it has its probems, but it works
5-22-2009 @ 1:12PM
Raffaele Zuccaro said...
Its a sad day in this country when a TWIT like this has SO MANY Unintelligent followers-- This country is in trouble when we are being "educated" from this Tower of TRAsh AND THE iDIOTS ON THE view- Who are these sad viewers who think these people are SMART?????
5-22-2009 @ 2:34PM
formyson said...
*STOPTHEHATE.. Sorry but you've got us confused with the people from "BLACK VOICES".... LOL
You say "Oprah "thinks" for herself". Oh yeah,, sure she does. Have you not noticed this... Whenever O has somone on her show who's more educated than her, has an education in a field that she DOESN'T (oopps, forgot didn't you, she never went to college..LOL), she ALWAYS tries to mimick them?? Sorry but she DOESN'T think for herself!! If she did then we/you wouldn't hear her spewing the words of some such as Maya Angelou, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz and the list goes on.
You think she does so much for "others"? Well, ONLY if they share the same SKIN COLOR that is. *rolling eyes*
This is the way I see her.... When she needs to be black, she acts black and when she needs to be white, she acts white. Tyra says that she wants to be just like O. Well, she's rising up to that dream because she does EXACTLY what O does...
O is a joke and she's so full of herself. How do you go to a graduation and tell the kids that owning a "private jet" is the end all of be all?? Especially in this day and age. Most of those grads won't even be able to get a job but rubbing her $$$ in their faces was just what they needed huh? If you think what she said during that speech was OK, then there's something very wrong with YOU!!!
You're just "another" O clone. One who can't think for themselves, one that thinks the sun shines out of their asses, one who thinks that having money will make you happy and once again, the list goes on....
If money can make you happy, if money can buy you what you really want then why hasn't it done so for O? After all, her big ass needs to lose weight but I don't see her money helping her in that situation, do you?? Yeah, didn't think so.... LOL Peace OUT ;)
5-22-2009 @ 7:03AM
Geordi said...
Too bad she can't skype from the unemployment line.
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5-22-2009 @ 7:04AM
Baxter said...
Who cares about Oprah anymore anyway? She lost me when she said there are several ways to get to heaven...just one way that I know of, Jesus Christ. Looks like she could influence for the GOOD with all that money.
Reply
5-22-2009 @ 8:19AM
JP said...
Whoever did? Except braindead people.
5-22-2009 @ 10:01AM
Nicole said...
I agree 100%
5-22-2009 @ 10:03AM
Rubarb said...
You are so right, that's why I will not watch her. Even if I see something on her advertisement that looks interesting I won't watch her. She has gotten to big for herself, she is dangerous because of her big following. I'm glad to see others feel the same way.
5-22-2009 @ 3:14PM
hwhite374 said...
You make me sick. So because she actually respects other views you stop watching her show? If she was an atheist you would have stopped watching? I don't watch or care much about her show, but I will say that she's better off without a dimwitted, narrow-minded, intolerant, religious nut, "fan" like you. Same goes for the all idiots who managed to get your comment three stars.
5-23-2009 @ 5:36PM
Louie said...
Same time I stopped watching. Surely, sometime in her Baptist upbringing she belived in Jesus Christ, and even if she's forgotten Him, He hasn't forgotten her. "Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth...." I don't know, maybe the gospel was never made clear to her. If so, all her good deeds will still end her up in Hell.