[r3trohack3r]

Well, it didn’t because it’s shutting down.

But there exist business models that operate like this. Usage usually follows a Pareto distribution. At one end, you spend almost nothing on usage, on the other end you spend more than you charged on usage. Assuming your long tail is long enough, and your power users few enough, you take a loss on one end of the Pareto and make your money on the other.

Where these models fail is when you can convert a resource fairly directly into value I.E. compute. Once your customers realize they can put $10 in and get $15 back out, you have a problem.