He got VC money. While everyone wants to harp on him for not having an ad up while the site is being updated why don't you wait and see what "experiment #2" is. I think you may well see he has a plan.
VC $$ used to be pretty easy to get but these days they have been burnt enough so I doubt they gave money to a company run by a 17 year old without having a huge say in the direction of the site. There are many huge sites out there today that never made a profit in their first few years of existence - facebook, twitter, et al.
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