It would be more accurate to say it had no desired path to profitability.
I have friends who interviewed in 1999, and all of them came away with the same view - they did not know how the company would make money. They all poked at this topic, and the founders were explicit they really did not want to sell ads.
Two of them refused to join because they thought it would fail as a result[1].
So while they did end up doing that, it seems very clear they did not want to go that path if they could avoid it.
If you have actual evidence that suggests this is not the case, rather than the random unsupported conjecture that it was "always their goal", i'd love to hear it!
I've not met a single person who says anything but what i just said - it was not always their goal, they had no desire to do it.
[1] Amusingly both ended up founding and selling companies for over 100m, so they did okay in the end despite theoretically missing a huge opportunity ;)
I have friends who interviewed in 1999, and all of them came away with the same view - they did not know how the company would make money. They all poked at this topic, and the founders were explicit they really did not want to sell ads. Two of them refused to join because they thought it would fail as a result[1]. So while they did end up doing that, it seems very clear they did not want to go that path if they could avoid it.
If you have actual evidence that suggests this is not the case, rather than the random unsupported conjecture that it was "always their goal", i'd love to hear it!
I've not met a single person who says anything but what i just said - it was not always their goal, they had no desire to do it.
[1] Amusingly both ended up founding and selling companies for over 100m, so they did okay in the end despite theoretically missing a huge opportunity ;)