Oprah's Kindle Effect: Amazon Traffic And Buzz Surge On Oprah's Endorsement

Since Amazon launched the Kindle, its electronic reader, a year ago, it has created a swarm of dedicated customer advocates. But on Oct. 24 it snagged the most important evangelist in Oprah Winfrey, who said, "I'm telling you, it's absolutely my new favorite thing in the world."

Oprah's Midas touch when it comes to selling books is well-documented, so it seems reasonable that the same would be true for Kindle. While Amazon doesn't release sales numbers for the product, it has featured her praise on its home page all week. And if all the search volume, web traffic and blog buzz are anything to go by, she's going to give Jeff Bezos & Co. a bright holiday.

6%: The amount Amazon's visits were up Oct. 24, the day Oprah endorsed Kindle on her show, over the previous Friday, according to Hitwise. Visits on Oct. 25 were up 4% over the week-before period. While Hitwise doesn't report actual site visits, Amazon is a top-20 internet site -- so a 6% bump can translate into hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[quinniebear]

My husband gave me a Kindle for my 50th birthday and I absolutely LOVE it. It is so lighweight, I carry it with me everywhere I go. It is especially wonderful for vacation...no more hauling 5-6 books with me. The dictionary feature is very useful; no going to the Internet or a separate dictionary to look up a word. You can purchase books through the device itself and have them almost instantly. And, you can even preview a book for free before purchasing. I LOVE it!!

[mredder4]

It seems like an interesting device, but at $300+? I've already shelled out for my ipod and Nintendo DS, and those cover my main entertainment habits of music, occasional video, and casual handheld gaming. That and the prices for Kindle books are ridiculous for electronic information.

Maybe Oprah will have a positive effect now and eventually the device will become popular enough to lower that price.

[KarateKid]

Kindle is a joke. It will never pay for itself, and Bezos can dream on, books, unlike magazines and newspapers, will never become obsolete.

[twofish]

One of Jeff Bezos' stated goal in starting Amazon.com was to drive brick-and-mortar bookstores out of business. He isn't the only force destroying independent bookstores, but he is a major player, damn him. I have never spent a penny at his web site and won't be getting a Kindle, either, though I'm still open to a reasonable electronic reader. I especially think our kids should be carrying them with their textbooks downloaded, instead of dragging around many pounds of heavy books in their backpacks. But not from Amazon.

[IndependentMeans]

LOVE MY KINDLE !!!

[dstosta]

I'm the kind of person who has books piled up everywhere and whenever I go any place I'm dragging a tote bag loaded with magazines and books. I saw the Oprah show about the Kindle and checked it out online. My husband wanted to see what I was looking at and he thought it was such a good idea that he surprised me with one. I called customer service to register and the customer rep. said that they had totally sold out of the Kindle and they were having more made. The Oprah endorsement obviously helped, it is always easier to make that kind of purchase if you know that someone else has one and loves it. There was also a $50.00 promo code provided and I think if you were on the fence that might have pushed you over too.

[victorsays]

Never liked the Kindle.

[toocoldout]

She's so brilliant. Even after a quarter century on the air she still has the midas touch. No one in the history of show business has been so dominant for so long.

[booker52]

I won't be buying the Kindle as you cannot use it with your local library. Sorry, you are retricted to using it with Amazon. There are other readers you can buy that are a bit pricer but you can download free books and newpapers, that is more my speed!! This isn't it!!!

[IndependentMeans]

Not true. Fictionwise.com also offer some Kindle books, at less cost.

[booker52]

Note I said free!!! And local libraries.