They don't currently but they will have to display ads eventually like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumbler, and the like because a business can't run on VC fumes forever with stockholders.

"but how does ____ make money?"

"They don't currently but"

Given how many times I've seen this in the last few years it might be time for me to figure out how to cash out before the lights go off.

And to iterate a bit on my last point ... there are spaces where advertising is inherently valuable, where you have a captive or semi-captive audience ... I don't see messaging (at least in the mobile space) as particularly banner-friendly.

Now obviously I wish I knew how to target the mobile messaging market; I don't. But it seems like you could see mass migrations based almost exclusively on presentation the way MySpace rapidly lost to Facebook.

Jesus they're going to have Microsoft send me a movie ad of their next flop.

I don't see why they didn't just take FB's money at what has to be their peak relevance. The only advertising opportunity I really see is unsolicited snaps. But I don't see users liking that.