[elemeno]

I think you're missing out on an important point - Users are not the same as Customers.

Customers pay you money, they are what you need to build a business. Having millions of users who don't provide any revenue is only useful if your goal is just to be bought by someone else.

I personally think that it's a sad state of affairs that most startups don't seem to be interested in building businesses, but instead just want to play the acquisition lottery instead.

[kayoone]

For many startups users are also customers because they pay in one form or another for the startups services. Of course there are a few startups that have enough funding to not care about monetization at all but thats an exception imo. I see much more web app service startups, mobile Apps, Games etc that actually charge something even if its not upfront. I run a games startup and our users are customers as well.