My point is that I believe the strategy was a very risky bet (way too risky in my opinion, but then again I'm not a startup CEO for a reason).

This is a very marketing-heavy operation that I don't think could stand on its own and be sustainable, and so the only possible outcome is to stay afloat long enough (by reinvesting a significant chunk of revenue into more marketing) to get gobbled up by a bigger fish.

They had the right investors that believed in it and bankrolled it for long enough and it paid off, but it's ultimately still a stroke of luck IMO.