Amazon and Uber are other examples of businesses that looked like total basket cases for years. I remember reading, and at the time being persuaded by, articles arguing that Uber was doomed because there are no real economies of scale in livery services, and so the minute they began to achieve a dominant position and hike prices, countless competitors would easily swoop in and undercut them. Didn't turn out that way.

Profits are irreducibly profitable, regardless.