In this post, I'll review the following resources that focus on Oprah's endorsement of Skype. I hope that by bringing these different sources together, I'll get a better look at how much Skype has penetrated the popular culture.
1. Segerstrom, J. (2008). Can u Skype me be 4 noon? Information Searcher, 17(4), 1-3.
2. Pepitone, J. (2009). Oprah's skypefest draws backlash. CNNMoney.com. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/20/technology/oprah_skype/index.htm.
3. Wolff, P. (2009). Why Oprah's Skype day was ineffective: Tone and Skype. Skype Journal. Retrieved from http://www.skypejournal.com/2009/05/why-oprah-skype-day-was-ineffective.html
As Skype's most famous celebrity endorser, Oprah has been using Skype since 2007, when Skype added high quality video conferencing abilities. (Skype added regular video conferencing to its service in 2005).
According to Jan Segerstrom (2008) Skype did not attract much popularity in America despite its introduction of videotelephony in 2005, “[h]owever, the adding of high quality video conferencing capabilities in 2007 coupled with Oprah Winfrey's 'A New Earth: Ready to Be Awakened' webcast on March 3, 2008 certainly has!” In this episode, Oprah gave pre-selected viewers a webcam and dual-processor computer so they could make a video call from their computers to Oprah's webcam.
"The worldwide webcast solicited questions from an online classroom of 750,000 registrants representing 139 countries. Although the webcast didn't go so well from a technological standpoint, more than 500,000 people simultaneously logged on to watch Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle discuss his book, A New Earth.” (Segerstrom 2008)
On May 21, 2009, Oprah aired an entire episode devoted to Skype called "Where the Skype Are You?” Doing a quick Google search, I discovered that Skype reviewers and Oprah fans in the blogosphere were quick to call this episode a failure. CNNMoney.com explains that Oprah and Skype have a sponsorship agreement. Since March 2008, many guests and Oprah's Book Club members have appeared on the show “live via Skype.”
Don Albert, the vice president of Skype (then owned by eBay) said: “We are a sponsor of the show, but the partnership started and has evolved out of [Oprah's] interest.” Albert refused to make a statement to CNN about whether Oprah's endorsement directly affected Skype's profits, but he did state “last-quarter results for Skype showed really robust growth.” (Pepitone 2009).
CNNMoney.com also discusses a backlash from Oprah fans against Skype. Message boards on Oprah's website frequently complain about 1) the poor sound and picture quality of Skype segments and 2) her constant promotion of Skype.
Phil Wolff who writes for the independent review blog Skype Journal had this to say about Oprah's “Where the Skype Are You?” program:
“This episode must have looked great on paper. Skype reinforces several Oprah themes: Surviving tough economic times by using free or cheaper tools. The importance of family and communication. That we live in a connected world and affect each other. Sadly, Oprah's regulars already knew the Skype basics, having seen dozens of guest appearances over Skype. Skype day became a "best of" show; not the most exciting format.” (Wolff 2009)
Wolff also feels the tone of the episode resembled an infomercial. He goes on to discuss problems with celebrities/mass marketers using Skype to interact with millions of fans, comparing Skype to Twitter (which Oprah also uses). Wolff's opinion piece concentrates on technical issues-- such as bandwidth shortage and the difficulty of accepting and organizing thousands of contacts en masse-- that prevent Skype from becoming an online community in the style of Twitter and Facebook.
I find Wolff's focus on the technology glosses over a larger issue. Unlike MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook, Skype is currently being used mostly for private conversations or conference calls and business meetings, not for mass fandom or self-promotion. Wolf seems to assume that Skype wants to and should find ways to expand in that direction. His suggestions for enhancing the Skype-user's ability to approve and call large numbers of contacts at once seems to lead us down a path towards video-telemarketing.
This makes me wonder whether one day we will see telemarketing via Skype, provided Skype becomes mainstream. The mixed responses to Oprah's endorsement raise doubts about its mass acceptance. On the other hand, Oprah is on the way to making Skype a household name. Other shows like Ellen, Jimmy Fallon, and even news programs are starting to used Skype to bring in guests as well. For now, Skype is without a doubt a Web 2.0 communication and networking tool, but it is not yet a “Fan 2.0” tool. I think that's probably a good thing. Given the history of telecommunications in the US, however, I would bet that if Skype becomes universally popular, we will start to see more creative telemarketing schemes that exploit it.
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