Oprah just favorited Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses in the latest sign the product is taking off

• Oprah endorsed Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses in her holiday gift list.
• The “Oprah Effect,” a phenomenon associated with Winfrey, could make the glasses even more popular.
• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Meta’s smart glasses continue to see strong demand.

Meta’s smart glasses are already outperforming expectations, and they just won a powerful endorsement as the holiday season kicks off.

Oprah Winfrey listed the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses in “Oprah’s Favorite Things 2024,” her annual gift guide on her digital platform called Oprah Daily.

“The gift of the season! I’ll be giving these to lots of folks this year. Ray-Ban and Meta’s newest glasses can tell you what you’re looking at in a new city, translate a menu from a foreign language, play music, snap photos, take a phone call, and more,” Winfrey said, linking to the glasses on Amazon and Meta.

Products Winfrey recommends typically benefit from a surge in sales and popularity, a phenomenon dubbed the “Oprah Effect.”

It may provide another boost to the wave of success that Meta’s smart glasses have already seen.

In Meta’s earnings call this week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the glasses continue to see strong consumer demand. He previously said they were “a bigger hit sooner than we expected,” something he touched on again during the earnings call.

“I continue to think that glasses are the ideal form factor for AI because you can let your AI see what you see, hear what you hear, and talk to you,” Zuckerberg said. “Demand for the glasses continues to be very strong.”

He pointed to a limited-edition clear version of the glasses, which became available during Meta’s product launch in September. The glasses, originally listed for $429, are reselling online at over $1,000, Zuckerberg said.

Susan Li, Meta’s chief financial officer, said during the earnings call that the company had already “evolved our roadmaps” to respond to the quick success of the glasses and would be “investing appropriately behind the consumer momentum that we see.”

Francesco Milleri, the CEO at EssilorLuxottica, which makes Ray-Bans, told the Financial Times that he thinks smart glasses will replace smartphones in popularity.

In terms of popularity, at least, Winfrey seemed to agree. She listed the smart glasses as the ideal gift for “the traveler, the techie, and the trendsetter.”