I agree that this business model has little in common with that of Google or other online businesses, but that doesn't necessarily mean it wouldn't work. I think a better analogy would be a Subway or a Starbucks in which you have a small staff at each location. By standardizing business processes and sharing expenses (advertising, accounting, etc) across many small locations, they can generally outcompete the local, independent operations and, in aggregate, generate a large amount of revenue.