Seeking to expose the truth behind famous review site, Yelp, director/producer Kaylie Milliken and her team at Prost Productions have launched a Kickstarter campaign for their new film called Billion Dollar Bully.
According to its description, Billion Dollar Bully is “a documentary on marketing giant Yelp’s $3.6 billion racket against small business owners.” It investigates the website’s past, along with business owners accusing it of extortion, manipulation and fabrication.
The film’s crew stated that it will feature business owners from across a broad spectrum who have stepped up and agreed to tell their personal stories of Yelp’s questionable business dealings, all of which are vehemently denied by the website, who instead states all allegations are merely conspiracy theories.
Despite the need for the Billion Dollar Bully, the team has only 50% of the project done, and they need extra funds to film. Contributions will go towards:
- Videography
- Editing
- Color correction
- Music composition
- Graphics
- Insurance
- Legal fees
Noting this is a “fund or not do” situation, the team added that they will not be using funds to pay for the crew’s salary. This will insure that all the money will go towards outside contracted work.
Sharing Yelp’s side of the story, a spokesperson told Business Insider:
“The director has a conflict of interest, as she has a history of trying to mislead consumers on Yelp. There is no merit to the claims they appear to highlight, which have been repeatedly dismissed by courts of law, investigated by government regulators, including the FTC, and disproven by academic study.”
Despite the comments made by Yelp, Billion Dollar Bully continues to remain successful on the crowdfunding platform and has so far raised nearly $20,000 out of its $60,000 goal.
Surprisingly, the Yelp’s shares even went down as much as 4% in afternoon trade on Thursday, just a day after the campaign’s launch.
Billion Dollar Bully’s Kickstarter is set to close on April 20th.
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