Hacker Cinema
Billion Dollar Bully
2019 · Film · documentary · 82 min
Directed by Kaylie Milliken
Today consumers Yelp everything from restaurants to dentists; plumbers to surgeons. The small business community sees Yelp's sales tactic as extortion. Does Yelp genuinely have an interest in helping people support the best local businesses, or are they a pay-to-play advertising platform?
3 positive3 neutralfrom 6 commenters
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7 comments on Hacker News
I wouldn't give Yelp too much praise. It's been alleged that Yelp engages in astroturfing and unfair business practices[0], and the documentary "Billion Dollar Bully"[1] even accuses them of "Mob-Like Behavior".
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_Dollar_Bully
Just pointing out what I had heard when I was subscribed to someone who had experiences with Yelp. Honestly, I found his latest video on the subject, after searching for 'yelp extortion,' which doesn't appear to be the best one to start with.
https://youtu.be/BHEbVh3Yhrw?t=442 may be better, as he talks with two of the people behind the movie Billion Dollar Bully. (I didn't re-watch it completely, as I don't want to get myself wrapped back up in his world.)
As it notes in https://slate.com/technology/2019/06/billion-dollar-bully-documentary-yelp.html and the above, if Yelp's culture means that employees are getting away with it, and sharing that, and tend to work with people who aren't web-savvy, there's certainly the opportunity for certain individuals within the company to give the company a bad name.
For-profit businesses, especially ones that want everyone to use them, generally don't like to talk about the fact that some part of why they exist is for the money and/or they have stakeholders that want to see a return on their investment.
It's also possible that Yelp has since gotten better, and they're still fighting off the old perspectives. Not OP so not sure where their evidence came from.
(I personally rarely use Yelp, don't have an account, and prefer the reviews built into Google Maps since that's my navigation app of choice. I didn't know about issues with Yelp until I was subscribed about the above, and after unsubscribing numerous months ago haven't heard anything else about Yelp until now.)
Yelp is super shady company. Just read reviews for Yelp company on Yelp :) . Tons of owners complaining about the same practices.
This review is from makers of film Billion Dollar Bully https://www.yelp.com/biz/yelp-san-francisco?hrid=AWabNUrPtNDNdNSKXZVanA&utm_source=ashare&ref=yelp-android
I find it funny that 60 minutes neglected to mention the Yelp documentary Billion Dollar Bully that exposes Yelp's business practices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2dkJctUDIs&t=3s
Only sharing for reference, you reminded me that someone made a documentary ('billion dollar bully') about this (not released yet, but supposedly being premiered soon):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_Dollar_Bully
http://www.prostfilms.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHEbVh3Yhrw (recent interview with the film creator)
It doesn't get much more despicable than Yelp. They've been threatening and extorting small businesses for years. There's an upcoming documentary film that exposes them for who they truly are.
>Billion Dollar Bully is an investigative documentary that examines allegations against Yelp regarding extortion, review manipulation, and review fabrication.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2dkJctUDIs
The billion dollar bully documentary is a good documentary on this.