Woah! As someone who hasn't paid much attention since the initial launch, I had no idea. Here's the business model:

> Besides in-game purchases, partnerships with retail chains like Starbucks, McDonald's, Sprint, pay Niantic Labs for "Foot Traffic" on-demand of the retail shops.

Some of their decisions do the opposite, especially the recent limitation of five remote raid passes used per day. It used to be unlimited, and of course they have a way to purchase game coins that are then used to purchase those passes.

IMO this was more in line with their original principles over profits (that you ought to walk outside to do a raid at a gym, rather than going on Discord to get a remote invite and use a pass you purchased with pokecoins). But I find the game boring and tedious anyway.

“Hey kids! Let’s play a fun game called what is your moms credit card number?”

The article suggests they make lots of money from partnerships with people like mcdonalds to bring people near to a branch by putting pokestops there. I'd guess the deal is along the lines of "we'll pay you 30 cents for each person you get to our front door".

For that to work, you don't want a few whales - you want as many hungry mcdonalds lovers as possible...

Hmmm. Citation needed. Am an active player. All the whales in the communities are adults.

Maybe you mean a generation of children as in children in the 90s), but even that's not true, as there's plenty of folks > 40yrs old, too. They've got multiple groups hooked.

Yeah, it really is an evergreen brand, like Barbie or Hot Wheels

My wife and I play to, but infrequently, but they aren't really pushing you heavily to buying anything. In fact there isn't much to buy in their store at all, so I am a little impressed that they make that much money.