Flickr, YouTube, FeedBurner, etc. were obviously not charging enough money to sustain themselves. $25 a year vs free doesn't make that big a difference when cos

Flickr, YouTube, FeedBurner, etc. were obviously not charging enough money to sustain themselves. $25 a year vs free doesn't make that big a difference when costs are $100+/year per user. I pulled the $100+/year cost per user figure out of my ass. It's probably much higher for Flickr. I have it on good authority from people very close to the project that Flickr was never once in the black. Ditto for Skype. Your whole comment, in fact, supports the idea that "if a startup loses more money than it brings in (whether it brings in $0 or $toolittle), it is extremely vulnerable to being bought and screwed over."