To further the original analogy, you can think of FB users or non-paying dating site users as "inventory". It sounds a bit dehumanizing, but it doesn't have to

To further the original analogy, you can think of FB users or non-paying dating site users as "inventory". It sounds a bit dehumanizing, but it doesn't have to be: in traditional business you have to manage and maintain your inventory properly as well. E.g., frozen food has to be kept frozen, planes have to be serviced regularly, etc. Maintaining your inventory has a cost, but you need to bear it because that's part of what you're selling. When running a site like FB, you have acquisition costs for your inventory (things you do to get your users to sign up for your site) and maintenance costs for your inventory (things you do to keep your users using your site). So making sure your users happy is an important part of your business because otherwise you're mismanaging your inventory. But you're free to decide that some of your inventory is too expensive to maintain vs. the value you and your customers derive from it, and it doesn't make sense to carry it anymore.