I'd agree with you on the point the site is trying to make, but what I find interesting is the rationalization for this behaviour.
The meat of the article, IMO, is this paragraph: "This system breaks down, however, when products stop costing anything to produce. The cost of provisioning service to a single user of a site is effectively zero, close enough that it can seem worthwhile to give it away in order to expand your userbase. Unfortunately, in doing so, you lose the revenue stream which has supported businesses since the dawn of commerce."
The meat of the article, IMO, is this paragraph: "This system breaks down, however, when products stop costing anything to produce. The cost of provisioning service to a single user of a site is effectively zero, close enough that it can seem worthwhile to give it away in order to expand your userbase. Unfortunately, in doing so, you lose the revenue stream which has supported businesses since the dawn of commerce."