Ask HN: Is G+ profitable for Google?

Because Google has a magic fountain that shoots out a cubic foot of liquid gold per second (ads), it can work on things which only tangentially benefit the business.

Most Google products are operating at a loss.

Directly? Nope. Indirectly? I guess.

Google stores information about you to make the ads more relevant to you. If someone is using/have used g+ and have liked a few profile/pages(not sure what they're called) then google surely is more confident about this data than other data, so it might help google drive more business by targeting better.

Again, as someone else pointed out, most of the google products are operating at a loss only at individual product level. You can think of it as another example for 80-20 Principle.

Does Google+ even drive direct revenue for Google?

At quick glance, I don't see premium membership or display ads. I assume the product operates at a loss but helps (read: tries to help) the ad products.

It might help them get some data. Data is the new money, right?

I guess its about 80-20 principle..