[shabble]

It isn't necessarily that it's not profitable for them, it's that it's not profitable enough for anyone else to offer viable competition.

Right now to compete with Google on 'free', their existing search, browser, mobile & advertising operations make it massively difficult for others to compete and extract similar value from users.

But if that's not allowed, and the practical business models involve charging users directly, it might be possible for small businesses to offer enticing services at comparable prices.