Two giants of Shenzhen's hard technology are attacking each other's core markets.

DJI and Insta360 are both benchmark enterprises in China's hard - tech going - global movement. Their headquarters are even less than 10 kilometers apart. By taking Shenzhen Metro Line 5 from Liuxiandong to Baohua, the whole journey only takes a short 30 minutes.

Now, these two giants are engaging in a close - range fight, directly targeting each other's core territories.

On July 31st, DJI launched its first panoramic camera, the Osmo 360. Just a few days ago, Insta360 publicly announced its entry into the drone market and plans to release the world's first panoramic drone in August.

The battle has quickly reached a white - hot stage. Insta360 is the king of panoramic cameras, and DJI is the leader in drones. Both hold about 70% of the global market share in their core product categories. These territories are their absolute "lifeblood" and cannot be lost.

The DJI Osmo 360 directly competes with the Insta360 X5, the flagship model launched by Insta360 in April, but its price is as low as 2,999 yuan. Insta360 had to respond. Two hours before DJI's product launch, it announced a 500 - yuan price cut for this model. Such a rapid and significant price cut for a flagship product has never happened before.

In fact, in the past two years, DJI has been very vigilant against Insta360 and has continuously launched price wars. For example, when Insta360's gimbal products were sold at 900 yuan, DJI reduced the price of similar products from over 900 yuan to over 700 yuan; when Insta360 priced its action cameras at 450 US dollars, DJI immediately reduced the price of its competing models to 300 US dollars.

However, the previous competitions were outside each other's core areas, and the intensity was relatively controllable. But now, both sides have shown their cards and are aiming at each other's foundations. The intensity of this "war" may far exceed external expectations.

From Secret Rivalry to Open Confrontation

There may be a battle between Insta360 and DJI eventually, and the spark between them appeared earlier than expected.

After announcing the entry into the drone market, Liu Jingkang, the founder of Insta360, admitted that the decision was actually made five years ago. He also anticipated that this move would prompt DJI to counter - attack in the panoramic camera market. However, Insta360 still chose to embark on this journey, which shows its determination.

The patent layout confirms this. Since 2020, Insta360 has continuously applied for patents related to "drones" and "panoramic drones". According to Brand Factory, its drone project was quietly launched three or four years ago.

This clearly touched the nerve of the industry leader. There are rumors in the market that when Insta360 was still researching drone technology and refining the prototype, DJI misjudged that mass production was imminent and immediately decided to launch a strong counter - attack. DJI's own panoramic camera project was officially launched in 2022.

If it was a secret rivalry before, then in 2023, the two sides had their first local conflict in the action camera field.

DJI entered the action camera market earlier. In 2019, when GoPro, the industry leader, was in trouble due to high - priced products and poor user experience, DJI keenly seized the opportunity and launched its first action camera, the Osmo Action. With its three - axis stabilization system and innovative front - facing screen design, it quickly opened up a niche in the market.

In contrast, Insta360 mainly focused on panoramic cameras. It wasn't until 2023 that it officially launched the Ace series of wide - angle action cameras, entering the most popular action camera segment at that time and directly competing with DJI's Osmo Action.

This was also Insta360's intentional choice to avoid direct competition with DJI too early. Liu Jingkang once said, "In the long run, fierce competition is inevitable, but my original intention was to delay it as long as possible."

After that, the two sides clashed head - on in the action camera field. Perhaps due to its unique understanding of the imaging market, Insta360 overtook DJI. Insta360's prospectus shows that in the global action camera market, GoPro is still number one, Insta360 has risen to second place, and DJI ranks third.

Although action cameras are not the core business of either side, and the intensity of the competition is still within a controllable range, Insta360's rise has undoubtedly sounded an alarm for DJI. A DJI employee said that Wang Tao, the founder of DJI, is highly vigilant against Insta360. He was extremely anxious last year. If Insta360 goes public and counter - attacks while succeeding in the drone market, it will be a formidable new enemy for DJI. "Tight defense" has become an internal consensus.

Wang Tao's concerns are not unfounded. On June 11th this year, after a four - year effort, Insta360 successfully listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. Its opening stock price soared nearly three times, and its market value exceeded 70 billion yuan. The huge amount of funds raised from the listing has largely made up for Insta360's scale disadvantage and provided it with sufficient "ammunition".

Now, Insta360 has launched two drone brands at once, its own brand and a new brand jointly incubated with a third - party. From the patent screenshots, it is clearly competing with DJI. For example, the design of the Insta360 drone is quite similar to DJI's Avata 2.

Obviously, DJI will not sit back and watch Insta360 invade its territory. According to a source, in addition to the panoramic camera, DJI has secretly incubated a panoramic drone project. The engineering prototype has been refined, and it is currently in the software system debugging stage. It is expected to be officially launched by the end of the year.

It is understood that DJI's panoramic drone solution is to deeply integrate the newly launched Osmo 360 panoramic camera with its existing drones (most likely based on the Mini series) to create an all - in - one product.

If this succeeds, it means that DJI will complete the full - category puzzle of the intelligent imaging market, covering aerial photography drones, action cameras, handheld cameras, panoramic cameras, and panoramic drones. A complete ecological closed - loop around imaging creation is emerging.

But more importantly, this marks that the rivalry between DJI and Insta360 has escalated from local market frictions to a full - scale war covering core areas.

Each Has Its Own Hardships

Interestingly, in this escalating confrontation, it seems that Insta360 is more proactive in choosing direct competition, while DJI seems to be forced to fight back.

However, behind Insta360's seemingly radical stance lies deep helplessness. An unavoidable objective reality is that the ceiling of the imaging device market is too low.

Insta360 revealed in its prospectus that the global panoramic camera market size was only 5.03 billion yuan in 2023. Currently, the market capacity is small. Even the entire handheld intelligent imaging device market is only 36.47 billion yuan.

Currently, Insta360 has reached the ceiling in the panoramic camera field. According to Frost & Sullivan data, its market share reached as high as 81.7% in 2024. However, even with such dominance in the niche market, Insta360's total revenue in 2024 was only 5.57 billion yuan, and its net profit was less than 1 billion yuan.

The anxiety about growth, especially the shadow of declining net profit, is hanging over Insta360. The first - quarter financial report of 2025 shows that the year - on - year growth rate of its net profit dropped sharply from 103.7% in 2023 to - 2.5%, and the net profit margin also shrank significantly from 22.8% to 13.0%.

Insta360 also issued a risk warning earlier, "If the growth of the industry market capacity is limited in the future and the company fails to expand its product line and application scenarios, its business growth will be restricted."

In terms of products, the two pillar categories, panoramic cameras (contributing 58.2% of the revenue) and action cameras (29.1%), together account for nearly 90% of Insta360's total revenue. The expanded categories such as AI mobile phone gimbals and video conferencing cameras have not yet gained momentum, and their prospects are unclear. For Insta360, entering new fields such as drones is urgent.

On the other hand, DJI, firmly sitting on the throne of the drone industry, is also far from relaxed. Its core market has also reached the ceiling.

Based on data from institutions such as Frost & Sullivan and Gartner, the global drone market growth rate was only about 5% in 2023. The sales of consumer - grade drones have declined for three consecutive years, and the saturation of the To C market is obvious.

As early as 2016, Wang Tao said that when the company's annual revenue reached 20 billion yuan, it might reach the ceiling. However, the explosion of short - videos later opened up a new growth channel for the drone and imaging industries.

But now, similar opportunities are clearly hard to come by again. As a result, DJI has slowed down the product iteration rhythm. In recent years, users' doubts about its products have gradually increased. It has been ridiculed as "squeezing the toothpaste like Apple" and jokingly called the "toothpaste factory".

Behind this may reflect a long - term proposition that every high - tech brand cannot avoid: when the first - stage closed - loop of core technology is completed, the space for "disruptive innovation" at the hardware level shrinks sharply. The diminishing marginal value of technological evolution forces enterprises to choose to "conserve strength" and "control the rhythm" to extend the product life cycle and maintain profits.

Therefore, when the growth of the two engines, drones and action cameras, is weak, finding a new growth pole for itself has become an unavoidable strategic choice for DJI.

The recently launched DJI ROMO sweeping robot is also a product of this background. Even though the sweeping robot market has become a red - ocean market, it has a huge market scale. Even if DJI captures a small share, it can bring considerable performance growth.

"As long as DJI enters a field, regardless of the quality of its products, it will capture 10 - 20% of the market share because of its brand," an industry insider told Brand Factory.

There is a saying of "late - mover advantage" in business, and DJI's current style is like this. It is not eager to enter an industry in its early stage. It waits until the market pattern stabilizes, technological iteration slows down, and user needs become clear, and then precisely enters the market with its strong brand, technology, and resource reserves to capture a considerable share. For a giant, this is undoubtedly a stable strategy with controllable risks and promising returns.

Competition in the Aerial Photography Market

The real ultimate "battlefield" between DJI and Insta360 may be neither panoramic cameras nor traditional drones, but a new category - panoramic drones. In essence, this is a battle for the right to define the "future aerial photography experience".

In recent years, the marginal appeal of traditional aerial photography has been gradually declining, losing the charm of the "different perspective" it once had. Classic aerial photography shots such as city bird's - eye views, person - surrounding shots, and seaside time - lapse shots have been overused, and the audience has already developed "aesthetic fatigue". The input - output ratio has dropped sharply.

This means that the traditional "viewing the scenery" overhead shots are no longer enough. Users are eager for more interesting pictures, more novel gameplay, and more unique perspectives.

Panoramic drones are the solution. Their ability to capture panoramic images and intelligent editing functions meet the new demand for "easily creating differentiated content".

Recently, a foreign travel video blogger used a DJI drone paired with an Insta360 panoramic camera to capture a 360 - degree bird's - eye view video of an Icelandic waterfall. It received 500,000 views within a week, which is a vivid proof of user demand.

Previously, Liu Jingkang also said bluntly that an important reason for entering the panoramic drone market is that there is a large amount of unmet customer demand, and there is an opportunity to create market growth. And this demand is obviously to reconstruct the aerial photography experience.

In fact, Insta360 has tried "panoramic aerial photography" before. In 2022, it launched an external panoramic camera, the "Tong Sphere". Although it was eventually phased out due to compatibility limitations (only compatible with specific DJI models), complex operation, and high usage thresholds, it also accumulated valuable practical experience and pointed out the strategic direction for the future.

The upcoming Insta360 Antigravity panoramic drone is a continuation and upgrade of this product. It is positioned as the world's first 360 - degree panoramic drone for daily users, featuring 8K shooting and the "invisible drone" effect (the aircraft automatically disappears from the frame) to "redefine" the flight experience.

The core of the Antigravity panoramic drone is to continue Insta360's iconic concept of "shoot first, frame later": it fully records the 360 - degree scene, and users can freely choose the angle for composition later. This completely liberates the strict requirements for composition in traditional aerial photography. Combined with AI editing tools, it significantly reduces the threshold for creating aerial photography content.

As the Antigravity says, "While other companies are still competing on specifications, we have disrupted the tradition and re - imagined the functions of drones. In the end, we have created a drone that can inspire real emotions and allow everyone to experience freedom, creation, and exploration."

In this new battlefield, DJI and Insta360 are, to some extent, on a relatively equal starting line. DJI's advantage lies in top - notch drone technologies such as flight control, obstacle avoidance, and navigation; Insta360's core strength is panoramic camera technologies such as imaging algorithms and image stitching. The success of panoramic drones depends on the deep integration and adaptation of these two types of technologies. It is still unclear who will win.

It can be said that the battle between DJI and Insta360 for panoramic drones is not a fight for the traditional "aerial photography hardware market", but an ultimate contest for "who can define the next - generation aerial photography content mode".

This article is from the WeChat official account "Brand Factory BrandsFactory" and is reprinted by 36Kr with permission.