This idea of providing content or a service for free, and then making money on the advertising, is still prevalent in tech start-ups to this day. Entrepreneurs look at Facebook or Google and say, “I can do that.” The problem is that there just aren’t that many Facebooks and Googles. In the Internet’s early days, when online space first allowed companies to target particular customer segments, “hyper-focusing” was seen as valuable. But as more and more platforms have arisen to facilitate it, the capability doesn’t quite have the same allure.
