SAN JOSE, CALIF.–– Fine, hate the Kardashians if you must. But the full weight of their presence bore down on a blogger conference in San Jose, Calif. this weekend, where notables like Arianna Huffington, Re/code’s Kara Swisher and even Khloe Kardashian were scheduled to show up to put their stamp on the future of the social web.
And no, that wasn’t some fat joke against Khloe Kardashian, who has often been dogged for her weight. (By the way, this year she’s reportedly lost 30 pounds and she’s actually fit, cut and free of ex-druggy hubby Lamar Odom.)
Khloe came to the conference to promote one of the event’s sponsors: Hair Finity, a line of vitamins that promises to boost hair health.
“Be careful,” warned Swisher, Re/code‘s Co-CEO, at a keynote event Saturday morning at the San Jose Convention Center. “They’re going to be running the world. Obviously the Kardashian’s are the geniuses of Twitter. They are.”
Later in the morning, the Kardashians resurfaced when Re/code reporter Nellie Bowles, interviewed eBay’s Richelle Parham. In fact, she started her interview with a question about the Kardashians.
“First thing I want to ask you about is the Kardashian app,” said Bowles. “It’s set to make Kim Kardashian 180 million dollars this year. What does that mean? What can we learn from that?”
Parham paused dramatically. “I have no idea what that means,” she said to a crackle of laughter from the audience. “I don’t understand. Just to be honest with you. I don’t understand. What I do know is they are a machine. They have figured out how to monetize everything they do. They are going to figure out how to monetize water.”
In regards to the app, she insisted, “I’m not playing it. I’m sure it’s a lot of fun. Godspeed on making that cash. What I can tell you is they’re using celebrity to drive revenue and that’s been working for them and that’s all I know.”