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I'd find the operating loss slightly disturbing, because it means they are relying on repeat business down the road in order to crank out profit. Not saying they are going to bomb, but as an investor I'd be more bullish if they could expand and profit at the same time - because it's possible that expansion will be a regular component of their business. Obviously if you believe they will do a lot of repeat business then this is not a problem at all.

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Doesn't it boil down to choosing the rate of expansion?

They could probably expand at a slower rate and keep a profit; or they could spend what would otherwise be a profit to expand at a faster rate. At the moment they seem to be going for option 2 which may be a debatable choice but also very normal for a company in the high-growth phase. Amazon is the classic example for this.

If they are investing in growth, good. If they are just buying top-line revenue, no.

Many tech businesses typically like to leverage their debt if growth looks solid and steep and there's a land grab (which there is considering the people entering this space like LivingSocial, Yelp, Facebook, etc.).

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