What is the alternative explanation? Reader evidently needed a very non-trivial amount of resources to maintain and didn't have anywhere near the amount of user

What is the alternative explanation? Reader evidently needed a very non-trivial amount of resources to maintain and didn't have anywhere near the amount of users to justify it. I lament that they couldn't keep it going, but even the guy who started the project inside Google said he and people working on it felt like its days were numbered from the outset.