Insta360 can easily splash money around, but it's hard for it to "steal the home base" from DJI.

On the evening of August 14th in Shenzhen, the office of Insta360 was bustling with activity.

Employees talked and laughed, sang and danced. The founder, Liu Jingkang, was beaming with pride and full of vigor. Standing upstairs, he waved his hand, and RMB flew into the air, falling among the crowd below who were scrambling for it.

It is said that this scatter of money amounted to 200,000 RMB.

However, this seemingly arrogant behavior inevitably sparked controversy.

Afterwards, Insta360 issued a response stating that on that day, it was the official start of the public beta of Insta360's panoramic drone, the Antigravity A1, and the relevant team held a small-scale team-building activity. Meanwhile, Liu Jingkang's act of scattering cash was described as "his personal participation in the interaction by distributing cash red envelopes with his own salary."

Then the matter faded away.

But the capital market had already boiled over.

After the video of Liu Jingkang scattering money was leaked, Insta360's stock price soared. It rose directly from 187.02 yuan on August 14th to 300 yuan within three trading days, a surge of up to 60%, and the market value climbed to 100 billion yuan. It has only cooled down today.

After all, while scattering money, Insta360 also officially announced its entry into DJI's territory - the consumer drone market, and told its own story about drones. But during the same period, DJI also responded by releasing its first panoramic camera, the Osmo 360, which is equivalent to entering Insta360's territory.

"In the past two years, DJI has been rather conservative in the imaging and drone fields. The iteration of new products has tended to be regular performance upgrades, in a state of slow and incremental improvement," Bai Yang, a senior sports camera enthusiast, told AI Blue Media. "Insta360's products have always been innovative, ingenious, and fancy. Now that Insta360 has entered the market, there are high expectations that it will force DJI to bring about new innovations."

However, for Insta360, it's easy to scatter money, but it's very difficult to shake DJI.

Eagerly Seeking New Growth

Why enter the drone market?

Liu Jingkang previously said on his WeChat Moments that the reasons for the company to enter the drone market included seeing unmet customer needs, the existence of market growth space, and the potential to drive the company's growth. Liu Jingkang mentioned that the decision to enter the drone market was made five years ago.

Facts indeed support this.

Public information shows that Insta360, founded in 2015, initially focused on intelligent imaging devices such as panoramic cameras and sports cameras. According to Frost & Sullivan data, Insta360 ranked first in the global panoramic camera market in 2023, with a market share of 67.2%, far exceeding the second place's 12.4%. It is expected that Insta360's market share will further increase to 81.7% in 2024.

However, even so, after going public, Insta360 is directly facing the pressure of finding a second growth curve.

In Bai Yang's view, even though there are more and more cycling enthusiasts and outdoor enthusiasts around him, the panoramic camera field where Insta360 is located is still a "very professional and niche" product track. It can even be said that it is more suitable for some niche sports scenarios such as skiing.

This means that it is a niche market.

This is also directly reflected in Insta360's performance.

From 2022 to 2024, Insta360's revenues were 2.041 billion yuan, 3.636 billion yuan, and 5.574 billion yuan respectively, and its net profits attributable to the parent company were 407 million yuan, 830 million yuan, and 995 million yuan respectively. Both the revenue and net profit growth rates showed a significant slowdown.

At the same time, in its prospectus, Insta360 clearly mentioned that it faces the risks of a small market capacity for panoramic cameras and intensified industry competition.

Data shows that the global panoramic camera market reached 5.03 billion yuan in 2023, and the total market size of handheld intelligent imaging devices was 36.47 billion yuan. Currently, the market capacity for panoramic cameras is relatively small.

A market of this size obviously cannot support the story that Insta360 wants to tell in the capital market as "a globally renowned intelligent imaging device provider based on panoramic technology."

At the same time, competition is intensifying. AI Blue Media learned from a well - known consumer hardware brand that they also plan to enter the intelligent imaging market and bring a new form of intelligent imaging product to the market, extending the boundaries of human "vision" to previously inaccessible dimensions.

Under various factors, for Insta360, entering the drone market is an eager attempt to seek a second growth space.

Insta360 has previously disclosed that it plans to launch drone products under two brands, including its own drone brand and a drone brand jointly incubated with a third - party. The Antigravity A1 currently in public beta is the latter, jointly incubated by Insta360 and a third - party.

And this also means that Insta360 is launching a direct charge against DJI.

Hunting and Counter - hunting

Different from the "niche" panoramic camera market, the drone market guarded by DJI is very vast.

The latest report from market research firm MarketsandMarkets shows that the global drone market size is expected to reach $26.12 billion in 2025 and will grow to $40.56 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 9.2%.

But the prerequisite for getting a share of the cake is to defeat DJI.

For a long time in the past, the consumer drone market has been dominated by DJI. According to public data, its global market share has remained stable above 70% for many years, and in some high - end markets, it even exceeds 80%.

In the eyes of the outside world, after nearly 20 years of development, the consumer - grade drone has become a mature product category. In recent years, the parameter upgrades and iterations have reached a new height, and DJI is in an absolutely dominant position in the global consumer - grade drone market.

And this also means that it is extremely difficult for new players to enter the market.

Bai Yang believes that when Insta360 enters the drone field, it will also continue its innovative product route and style.

He took Insta360's thumb camera as an example. "This thumb camera features portability and compactness. It can achieve any imaginable shooting angle and has extremely high playability."

The Antigravity A1 currently in public beta by Insta360, as its first global panoramic drone, also focuses on being small.

It is understood that one of the main selling points of this drone is that it can shoot 8K panoramic videos. In Bai Yang's words, it is a flying panoramic camera. Another selling point is its lightness. The Antigravity A1 weighs less than 249 grams and belongs to the small - sized consumer - grade drone category.

An industry insider told AI Blue Media that in both the sports camera and drone fields, there has been a lot of accumulation in relevant technologies and algorithms, and there is basically no generational gap. For new entrants, the main focus is on innovating in product form around the specific pain points of users.

Public information shows that the Antigravity A1 will be officially launched in January 2026. It will be sold in a combined package with the A1 drone, Vision flight goggles, and Grip motion - sensing remote controller. Whether it can shake up the drone market remains to be seen.

And DJI, which has been challenged, has also fought back.

Almost at the same time when Insta360 announced its entry into the drone market, DJI also turned its attention to the panoramic camera market. At the end of July, DJI released its first panoramic camera, the Osmo 360. The square HDR image sensor of this product can increase the effective area utilization rate by 25% and supports 8K/50fps ultra - high - definition recording. Its functions and positioning are generally considered by the outside world to directly compete with Insta360's flagship X series.

"In the past few years, everyone has been waiting for DJI to come up with something new instead of making only incremental improvements. Now, stimulated by Insta360, DJI's innovation has been activated. It's hard to say who is the hunter and who is the prey," Bai Yang said. "DJI has also formed a highly integrated ecosystem in the sports camera field. Take the Action 5 Pro launched last year as an example. It can be linked with drones, stabilizers, and other devices through accessories such as the DJI MIC 2 to unlock more shooting modes."

The Unconventional Behavior of a Post - 90s Entrepreneur

In fact, Liu Jingkang had anticipated this mutual encroachment on each other's territory.

But he believes that Insta360 does not pursue a comfortable status quo but an all - or - nothing approach. He also said that DJI is a competitor, but he doesn't want to become another DJI.

He doesn't want to be like DJI not only in terms of product style but also in terms of work style.

An obvious fact is that different from Wang Tao of DJI, who is low - key and introverted, this post - 90s entrepreneur has distinct personality traits.

This act of scattering money at the team - building activity is just one manifestation of his "generous and bold" style.

It is understood that Insta360 has been spending a large amount of money at its annual meetings for seven consecutive years: a total of 27 new cars have been given away; at the 2025 annual meeting, cars such as the Xiaomi SU7 Max, Li L7 Pro, Tesla Model Y, and BMW 3 Series were given away, and more than 1,800 prizes such as 50 - gram customized gold bars, iPhone 16 Pro, and Moutai were distributed, with a winning rate as high as 77%.

At the same time, within Insta360, Liu Jingkang also launched the "Million - Yuan Weight - Loss Plan." Employees are rewarded 500 yuan for every kilogram of weight loss, and fined 800 yuan for every kilogram of weight gain. Since its launch in 2022, this activity has been held for seven consecutive sessions, with a total bonus of nearly 2 million yuan distributed. In the latest session, 99 participants lost a total of 1,900 kilograms and shared 1 million yuan in bonuses.

And so on.

There was even a time when Liu Jingkang "angrily criticized" the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Insta360 first submitted its application for IPO on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in October 2020 and successfully passed the review of the listing committee in September 2021. It was thought that the path ahead would be smooth, but unexpectedly, after submitting for registration in January 2022, Insta360 fell into endless waiting and failed to obtain the registration approval from the CSRC for a long time.

Facing this dilemma, Liu Jingkang chose to publish a long post on his WeChat Moments, publicly questioning the CSRC's approval process and fairness, claiming that he didn't ask for the approval but only for so - called "fairness."

Now, on the one hand, with Insta360's official listing and its market value soaring five - fold to reach 100 billion yuan in just two months, and on the other hand, with Insta360's official challenge to DJI, perhaps in the future, Liu Jingkang will restrain his "unconventional" behavior and adapt to the spotlight.

After all, Insta360 can no longer be considered a "newcomer" in the market.

This article is from the WeChat official account "AI Blue Media", author: Ye Er, editor: Wei Xiao, published by 36Kr with permission.