We spend so much time debating whether companies like OpenAI and Facebook, or their leaders, are “good” or “bad.”
We should change the narrative and ask: What are the core revenue drivers? How is the focus on exponential growth through these drivers shaping behavior? In the absence of impossibly high corporate governance standards, business models are what truly drive ethical outcomes.
Several years ago, I found myself in a spicy chicken skewer joint just off Geylang in Singapore with my close advisor and friend Andeed Ma. The dissonance between the location’s ‘sophistication’ and the question posed by Andeed couldn’t have been bigger.
AI and Money
We were discussing his upcoming book ‘AI for Humanity’ – that has since been released. Suddenly he asked, “Hey bro, what do you think are the main variables that will define if AI will be good or bad for humanity?”. It was somewhat of a surprise when I answered – after zip of Tsing Tao – “… the revenue model is key bro”. Easy example: social media companies like Facebook.
Facebook’s revenue comes almost exclusively from advertising – its entire business optimizes for user attention and data collection. Despite public statements about wellbeing, the revenue model inevitably pushes toward addictive features, privacy compromises, and emotionally triggering content. When venture backing demands exponential growth, executives rationalize harmful practices as necessary for “survival”. In this context books like ‘Careless People’ remain shocking, but we shouldn’t be surprised.
Success Fees and Debt Collection
The debt collection industry illustrates this perfectly. Most agencies moved from retainers to percentage-based fees – a model that can encourage aggressive practices. Off the record, many Malaysian debt collection agencies would likely say something like:
As a debt collection agency, my agents needs to collect $6,000-$10,000 (per head) to break even. While regulators expect compliance, clients only care about collection rates. To maximize profits, we treat debtors as numbers, not people. We use aggressive tactics on unmonitored calls and acquire phone numbers through questionable ‘skip tracing.’ There’s a silent agreement with clients – we talk about collections but ignore practices unless regulators push such as the Credit Consumer Act (CCA)… It’s just how it works.
Let me be clear—not all debt collection agencies resort to these practices, and the industry wasn’t particularly ethical to begin with. But, the above example does serve as an illustration of how company, owner, and staff decision-making can be impacted depending on its business model and core metrics.
Rigor and Mitigation Towards Ethics
This pattern repeats everywhere: social media’s attention economy, fast fashion’s disposability, delivery apps squeezing restaurant margins. Business models create incentives far more powerful than mission statements.
At Ara Pay, we try to mitigate these dynamics through intentional design – humane prompt engineering, AI review layers that check negotiation morality, and token-based costs that eliminate the staff-squeezing pressure many agencies face. Our current setup is more intentional about warding off the impacts of our business model, but we must remain vigilant and continuously tweak towards a model that drives more ethical outcomes.
As investors, consumers, and business leaders, perhaps it’s time we paid less attention to what companies say in their mission statements and more attention to how they actually make money. That’s where you’ll find the real drivers of their behavior.
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