There could a freemium approach as well. The paying users get a better experience (more storage space, faster delivery, faster search), and the free users get the basic package. Seems to work for Dropbox and they dont show me ads, except ads for Dropbox itself.

I'll chime in. If we want to provide GMail free to people in Africa, then we just do it. Govt subsidize it or something. Quit shoe-horning philanthropic efforts into somebody's business model.

If philanthropy is an emergent property of a business model, I'd count my blessings and keep it.

The point of the article was that it Wasn't, in fact it was a drag on the business model.