Want to know how out of hand the fake reviews problem is?
![](/sites/www.builtinaustin.com/files/picky_screenshot_3_225x337.jpeg)
And that’s just Yelp.
Combine that with the #NoReceiptNoReview campaign pressuring TripAdvisor to enforce authenticity in its 250 million reviews and Amazon’s lawsuit against 1,000 fake reviewers, and it’s pretty obvious we need a solution.
A new app called
might be part of it.![](/sites/www.builtinaustin.com/files/picky_team_600x447.jpg)
The videos must show the place or product the user is reviewing, or it will be removed.
Those are pretty tight reins to put on a video sharing app, but it’s hard to argue with the goal of forcing honesty. Even if a user is lying in the review, he or she will be doing so with their own face and voice, making it harder to be a fake for hire with different usernames and IP addresses.
Hobson said Yelp, YouTube and Vine set the scene for Picky.
![](/sites/www.builtinaustin.com/files/picky_screenshot_4_225x296.jpeg)
But, Hobson said, YouTube isn’t a dedicated review platform, and wasn’t designed to discover products and places. Plus, the Picky team wanted their experience to be as social as Vine.
300 users joined the service in the week following its launch in the iOS App Store. The company plans to begin fundraising efforts and the search for an office in early 2016.
App mockups and team photo courtesy of Picky.
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