Google is definitely no stranger to shutting down and killing unprofitable products - often pretty early even. They have a long history of doing just that. And

Google is definitely no stranger to shutting down and killing unprofitable products - often pretty early even. They have a long history of doing just that. And being a publicly traded company - they would have to shut down Chrome as well, if it actually were unprofitable/not worthwhile. And they do have the data needed to actually get a relatively accurate picture of how Chrome affects their bottom lines overall. They know what they are doing, giving it away for free.