A delivery app does not own the restaurants, a booking platform does not own the hotels, and an online store does not manufacture the products. These companies may appear to operate without assets, but the restaurants, hotels, vehicles, and inventory have not disappeared; what has changed is who owns them and who bears their cost.

This approach is known as the Asset-Light Model: the company focuses on technology, brand, data, and access to customers, while other partners finance and operate the physical assets. The more important question is not how many assets the company owns, but whether it has retained the highest-value part of the business—or merely shifted the costs and become dependent on others.

Where Is the Value?

In the hotel industry, an investor may finance the property, while the brand earns fees for its name, booking system, and management. In a delivery app, the restaurant prepares the meal and the driver provides the means of transportation, while the platform coordinates the order, payment, and access to the customer.

This allows the company to expand without buying every hotel, vehicle, or item of inventory it needs. The service may also become stronger as participation increases: more options for customers and more orders for suppliers. However, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development emphasizes that platforms differ significantly and do not all succeed for the same reasons; a larger network is not enough if the service is weak, customer acquisition costs are high, or suppliers do not earn enough to remain on the platform.

Jahez: Platform Growth Does Not Mean Owning Everything That Passes Through It

The example of Jahez Group illustrates how the concept works financially. In 2025, the total value of orders and goods processed through the group reached SAR 7.2 billion, while its net revenue amounted to SAR 2.32 billion.

The difference does not mean that all of it went directly to restaurants and drivers, because revenue recognition varies across the group’s activities. However, it shows that the platform coordinates economic activity larger than the revenue it recognizes in its accounts.

Commission revenue also rose to SAR 1.11 billion, while delivery-fee revenue fell by 13.1% due to intense competition in the Saudi market. This is where the model’s limits become clear: reaching a large number of customers does not give the platform complete pricing freedom; it may have to reduce fees or increase marketing spending to defend its market share. Saudi Exchange – Jahez 2025 results

Why Might a Company Return to Owning Assets?

Being asset-light is not an end in itself. A company may need to own part of its operations if doing so becomes essential for controlling quality or reducing costs.

This is evident in Jahez’s logistics arm, «Logi»: expanding internal delivery capacity reduced delivery costs per order at the group level, but increased depreciation expenses and contributed to the segment’s net loss reaching SAR 25.5 million in 2025.

The paradox is clear: owning assets may improve control and operational efficiency, but it brings investment and depreciation costs back onto the company’s books. For this reason, a hybrid model—an asset-light platform that owns only critical operations—may be better than complete asset-lightness.

The Saudi Opportunity and Who Captures the Value

Saudi Arabia’s digital environment creates room for these models to grow: the digital economy accounted for 16% of GDP in 2024, while the number of e-commerce commercial registrations reached 40,953, according to the General Authority for Statistics.

These figures do not prove the widespread adoption of the asset-light model itself, but they demonstrate the expanding environment that enables platforms to connect more consumers, businesses, and service providers.

A small business benefits when a platform gives it access to new customers without requiring it to establish branches or an independent distribution network. However, the benefit diminishes if the business becomes dependent on a single channel that controls the customer, data, and fees. Therefore, the model’s success should not be measured by order growth alone, but by the platform’s and supplier’s ability to generate sustainable returns while maintaining service quality.

What Should Investors Understand?

Having few assets on the balance sheet does not automatically mean having few risks. To evaluate this type of company, four questions are sufficient:

  • Can it grow without significant capital expenditure?
  • Does it profit from each transaction after incentives and marketing costs?
  • Does the supplier earn enough to encourage continued participation?
  • Can the company control quality and withstand changes in competition and regulations?

Ultimately, assets do not disappear; their ownership and risks shift among the parties involved in the business. The strongest company is not the one that owns the fewest possible assets, but the one that knows what it must own to protect quality and profitability—and what others can operate more efficiently.