Venture capitalists my friend. Many of these new fangled Web 2.0 services are start-ups that attempt to reach a crtical mass on the web with users like yourself. Once this happens they sell out to the highest bidder and a few people - the founder, VC and employees - make big bucks. Flickr is case and point. Yahoo bought this Vancouver start-up for a pretty penny, and many local VCs are now snooping around for the next one.