I've always thought Niantic / Ingress was never intended to make a profit, but instead gamify exploration and map routes and whatnot where Google's street maps cars couldn't reach.

Google has a lot of services and products that don't earn them money directly (Chrome is probably the biggest one, Android another), but which do provide Google indirectly - Chrome's initial focus on speed meant lots more page views which caused lots more ad impressions which caused more income. In theory.