Creating a web-based app / platform yourself

[Lucky8]

But when users were asked to pay for the service all that support faded away.

Then they didn't really have demand, so the idea wasn't sound. Even 50k of marketing couldn't persuade them. No amount of marketing would have made this right. The proposition wasn't right from the outset.

 

[gpietersz]

Market research gets loads of positive feedback, people sign up for testing and there is lots of positive press

There is probably a lot of selection bias. People who sign up for testing are those for whom the idea is most appealing.