After five years of struggle, the unicorn founded by a post - 90s entrepreneur is finally going public and will become the "first stock in intelligent imaging" | Focus Analysis

Author | Zhang Ziyi

Editor | Yuan Silai

It's always difficult to be the first.

In 2004, GoPro in the United States launched the first 35mm film action camera, creating a brand - new category of action cameras. For more than a decade thereafter, GoPro was synonymous with action cameras. Eleven years later, Ricoh in Japan released the world's first 360 - degree panoramic camera, officially kicking off the great development of the panoramic camera industry.

However, in a very short period of time, they were left behind by a startup from Shenzhen.

In the first half of 2024, Insta360's sales exceeded those of GoPro, making it the world's number one in the action camera category. Data from Frost & Sullivan shows that in the global consumer - grade panoramic camera market in 2023, Insta360 ranked first with a market share of 67.2%, while Ricoh of Japan, the second - ranked company, only had a market share of 12.4%.

Founded less than a decade ago, Insta360 has become the number one in both the consumer - grade action camera and panoramic camera fields. The company's revenue was 1 billion yuan in 2021 and reached 3.636 billion yuan in 2023, achieving nearly a four - fold increase in two years.

Not long ago, after waiting for nearly five years, Insta360's IPO registration application on the Science and Technology Innovation Board was officially approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, meaning it is expected to become "the first stock in China's intelligent imaging industry", and its founder, Liu Jingkang, will also become one of the youngest chairmen on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.

This is a business legend, also boosted by Made in China.

Insta360 has left behind the pioneers in its industry. In the consumer - grade action camera field, GoPro hardly poses a threat anymore, while DJI, also a Chinese company, has become Insta360's new competitor.

01 The Pursuit of the Latecomer

Since DJI entered the action camera field in 2019, its Action series products have often been compared with Insta360's products by hardware bloggers at home and abroad.

In the latest report on the best action cameras in 2025 released by Wired, DJI's Osmo Action 5 was rated as the best all - around action camera, with the view that it offers the best cost - performance in terms of battery life, video quality, and sound quality.

Insta360's Insta360 ACE Pro2 was considered the best camera choice for video bloggers. A Wired editor commented that its video quality is impressive, especially in low - light performance, which is much better than that of GoPro. Overall, the image quality is similar to that of DJI Osmo Action 5, which uses the same sensor (although DJI limits the recording resolution to 4K).

Insta360's prospectus also listed a parameter comparison between its products and other similar products. In terms of retail price, DJI's Osmo Action 5 is 100 yuan cheaper than Insta360's Ace Pro.

(Image source/Insta360's prospectus)

There is no clear evidence that DJI's action camera series products are targeting Insta360, but DJI has indeed adopted a low - price, high - performance strategy in the action camera field, at least forcing GoPro to make significant price cuts at one point.

According to a report in China Photography News, within less than 48 hours after DJI officially released its first action camera, the Action (officially priced at 2,499 yuan), GoPro's Tmall store slashed the price of its best - performing Hero7 Black standard version from the previous 3,398 yuan to 2,798 yuan.

In Insta360's consumer - grade intelligent imaging device product line, the ACE series products are classified as action cameras. The first product in this series was launched in 2023. Prior to that, apart from the wearable Go series cameras, Insta360's ONE R and ONE X series products were all panoramic action cameras.

Insta360's prospectus shows that the revenue of the ACE series products has been growing rapidly within the company. In 2023 and from January to June 2024, the series achieved revenues of 96.5607 million yuan and 280 million yuan respectively, accounting for 2.69% and 11.47% of the total. This has balanced and made up for the revenue gap caused by the ONE R series of modular panoramic action cameras reaching the end of their product life cycle. (The ONE R series products have been removed from the Taobao and JD platforms.)

Insta360's Go series products, which have become quite popular on social media, are considered by many bloggers in their reviews to be excellent for unobtrusive shooting due to their thumb - sized form factor. On Chinese social media, users often compare them with DJI's Pocket series products. Both types of products are characterized by being lightweight, portable, and suitable for shooting lifestyle videos such as VLOGs.

Insta360 has released the third - generation of the Go series products. As of June 2024, the revenue contributed by this series reached 340 million yuan, accounting for 14.26% of the total.

The Go series has a unique product form and also contributes well to Insta360's internal revenue. However, compared with the huge popularity of DJI's Pocket 3 in the domestic market, it seems a bit less impressive.

DJI's Pocket 3, which has been on the market for over a year, has become the "electronic Maotai" in China. Yingke found that the relevant entries of Pocket 3 on Xiaohongshu have been viewed over 1.2 billion times, with a total of over 680,000 notes and over 8 million discussions.

Data from Magic Mirror Insights shows that the sales of DJI's Pocket 3 in its Tmall official flagship store in November 2024 nearly tripled compared with the previous month, approaching 80 million yuan, while before August, its monthly sales were stable between 10 million and 20 million yuan.

Facing this competitive situation, Liu Jingkang publicly stated at the company's 2024 annual meeting: "Thank you, DJI. Thank you, GoPro."

That being said, while Liu Jingkang publicly complained on his WeChat Moments about other companies' "finger - cutting plans", he also made a jibe at DJI, saying "DJI's (bottom line) is at 8848".

Image source: Internet

It's not hard to see that behind the barely maintained dignity, Insta360 can hardly hide its competitive pressure.

02 Looking for a Hammer or a Nail

Liu Jingkang once sighed in an interview: "In the four or five years after 2020 in the intelligent hardware field, compared with the period from 2015 to 2020, the emergence of brand - new product categories has significantly decreased. This is quite a pity."

Indeed, nowadays, whether it's Insta360 or other consumer electronics companies, most of the products launched are continuations of past product lines, with continuous improvements in parameters and other indicators, but lacking the epoch - making significance of the "iPhone moment".

Going back to the early days of Insta360's entrepreneurship, it was a pioneer in creating new product categories. In 2016, Insta360 released its first panoramic camera for consumer - end users, the Insta360 Nano, which made Insta360 well - known and its revenue soared from zero to 20 million yuan within a month.

Of course, due to the overly novel form of the Nano and the lack of practical application scenarios, the sales of the Nano experienced a roller - coaster ride. Subsequently, poor sales led to it being "kicked" out of the stores of Best Buy, a globally well - known home appliance retail enterprise.

The rise and fall of the Nano's sales led to a change in Insta360's product R & D thinking. Insta360 realized the importance of finding application scenarios.

GoPro became an important reference for them. In addition to the cycling and skiing scenarios defined by GoPro, Insta360 found that there are many other sports scenarios, including travel scenarios, where panoramic cameras or panoramic technology can solve problems that traditional action cameras cannot, such as the difficulty of framing and the angle of view.

Insta360 thus launched the panoramic action camera - the ONE X series. This product lowers the threshold and cost of using sports shooting. It pioneered the function of "shoot first, frame later". Users only need to hold a selfie stick or wear the camera on their heads during sports to record the 360 - degree scenery along the way, and the footage can be automatically edited later. This product concept and R & D thinking in innovation have been recognized by consumers.

The revenue of Insta360's ONE X series has accounted for about 50% of the total for many years. As of June 2024, the revenue of the ONE X series products reached 1.27 billion yuan, making it a real ever - green product.

So far, in the panoramic action camera field, there are hardly any comparable products to Insta360's ONE X series.

However, any consumer electronic product has its life cycle. Becoming the industry leader often means facing more severe challenges. At this time, there are no predecessors to follow, but innovation cannot stop.

Insta360 has also tried to expand from the panoramic/action camera field to the mass photography field. In March 2023, Insta360 launched its first AI mobile phone gimbal, the Flow, entering the mass mobile phone photography market. In 2022, Insta360 also launched the AI gimbal camera, the Link.

The revenue situation of the Flow and Link has so far been classified as accessories and other products and has never been able to gain a foothold.

Liu Jingkang said in an interview with GeekPark: "Although we have to look for existing nails, we still hope to always keep the mindset of making a hammer and then looking for a nail."

This is a beautiful wish and also a problem for Insta360 after becoming the number one.