The Three Business Models of Social Media
Change the incentive and you change what the product does to you.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 82%
Hari lays out three possible business models for social media. Today's is surveillance capitalism: the platform is free, but AI scans everything you do to keep you scrolling and sell your attention to advertisers, so you are the product, not the customer. The second is subscription, which flips the incentive — once you pay, the company must serve what you actually want, even if that means less scrolling. The third is public ownership, treating information pipes like sewers we build and maintain together, independent of government (his model is the BBC). The unifying insight: the lever is the incentive, not user willpower.
Origin
Hari spent extensive time interviewing Silicon Valley insiders like former Google staffers Dr. James Williams and Tristan Harris. He drew the 'surveillance capitalism' term from Harvard's Professor Shoshana Zuboff and realized how naive he'd been about how simply engagement maximization drives the whole machine.
Core principles
- 01The current model, surveillance capitalism, profits by maximizing your scrolling.
- 02When you don't pay, you are the product sold to advertisers.
- 03Subscription flips the incentive so the company serves the user, not the advertiser.
- 04Public ownership treats information pipes like sewers — shared infrastructure.
- 05Whatever the model, the lever is changing the incentive, not adding willpower.
How to run it
- 1
Expose the current model
See that under surveillance capitalism the platform makes money the longer you scroll, so all its AI is aimed at hijacking your attention.
Pro tip These companies have no customer service line for users because users aren't the customers.
- 2
Identify who actually pays
Recognize that when the product seems free, you pay with your attention and your data, and advertisers are the true customers.
- 3
Model the subscription flip
Consider how paying directly would force the platform to optimize for what genuinely serves you — like helping you meet friends offline.
Pro tip You could redesign the app in five minutes to maximize offline meetups instead of scroll time.
- 4
Consider public ownership
Evaluate treating information infrastructure as a shared public good, funded collectively but kept independent of government control.
Pro tip The BBC model shows collective funding can stay independent of any political figure.
Watch out Guard against government control; independence from politicians is essential.
In the wild
Under surveillance capitalism the app asks 'how do we keep Bob scrolling?' Under subscription it must ask 'what does Bob want?' Bob feels awful after hours of scrolling edited photos but good when he meets friends offline, so a subscription app could be built in five minutes to help him arrange a coffee with a nearby friend.
→ The same engineering talent, pointed at a different incentive, would enhance users' real-life goals instead of hijacking their attention.
Common mistakes
Blaming yourself for weak self-control
Ten thousand engineers are working to undermine your self-control; the fix is changing the business incentive, not trying harder.
Assuming 'free' has no price
Free access is paid for with your attention, your data, and downstream harms to your mood and your politics.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders, product designers, policymakers, and citizens evaluating how to fix or build healthier platforms.
Not ideal for
Users seeking only a personal usage tweak with no interest in the underlying economics.
From the transcript
“The technical term for it, which comes from Professor Shoshana Zuboff at Harvard, is surveillance capitalism. You seem to get it for free, but in…”
“Whatever alternative model you use, the key thing is about changing the incentives.”
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Johann Hari