Wang Tao of DJI steps out of the comfort zone of drones
"The world is so stupid, incredibly stupid." In the summer of 2016, Wang Tao, the founder of DJI, left a famous quote that would be repeatedly cited later in front of China Entrepreneur.
Nine years later, DJI launched a cross - border layout with a two - pronged approach, triggering a battle among enterprises in the consumer electronics field. Judging from market innovation and maturity, these two businesses might have been regarded as "stupid" by Wang Tao in the past.
On July 31st, DJI launched its first panoramic camera, the Osmo 360, directly challenging the dominant position of Insta360, the leader in the panoramic camera market. Its pricing strategy is also quite aggressive, with a price of 2,999 yuan, nearly 300 yuan lower than Insta360's comparable products.
At the beginning of August, DJI released its floor - cleaning robot, the DJI ROMO, entering the highly competitive intelligent cleaning market. Neither of the two new products was officially announced in advance, nor was there a product launch event. They were directly put on the market for sale.
DJI's preemptive move made Insta360 and Dreame restless. Liu Jingkang, the founder of Insta360, responded high - profilely with a "money - spreading spree". While celebrating the company's market value exceeding 100 billion yuan, he also announced that the company's panoramic drone brand, "Antigravity", would start a public beta. On August 20th, Dreame followed suit, officially announcing that it was developing drone products, attempting to penetrate into DJI's core market.
DJI's cross - border intention is not hard to understand. As early as 2016, Wang Tao predicted that "the drone market was about to reach saturation, and DJI's revenue might top out at 20 billion yuan."
In 2024, DJI's revenue exceeded 50 billion yuan. Although it still holds more than 70% of the global consumer drone market share, the slowdown in revenue growth is an undeniable fact.
Photography: Wu Ying
In the past six months, it was reported that several early technical backbones of DJI had left the company. This is related to the fact that the drone products have entered a micro - iteration cycle, and technical R & D personnel are seeking larger platforms.
DJI needs to step out of its comfort zone and find new battlefields. The technologies of drones, panoramic cameras, and floor - cleaning robots have also reached a stage of group maturity, and the industrial boundaries are intertwined.
When companies meet at the crossroads of growth, a confrontation is inevitable.
How to Make a Good Floor - Cleaning Robot?
In Shenzhen, the headquarters of Insta360 is less than 15 kilometers away from DJI's global headquarters, "Sky City". Liu Jingkang had anticipated this competitive landscape long ago.
After announcing the development of drones, Liu Jingkang wrote in his WeChat Moments: "When making the decision five years ago, we anticipated that this move would prompt DJI to enter the panoramic camera market. Even at this cost, we chose to set sail five years ago. The reason is simple: if the top runners are leading the marathon, you will also run faster. Do you choose to stay in the novice village or choose a devil coach?"
DJI's intention to "land" from the sky has been around for a long time. A DJI insider revealed to China Entrepreneur: "The floor - cleaning robot project was launched in 2021. At that time, one person was selected from each relevant technical module department to form the project team. Currently, the floor - cleaning robot team has more than 100 people."
Back in 2021, floor - cleaning robots were just starting to gain market acceptance. Major brands began to experiment with multi - functional charging stations and introduced innovative technologies such as automatic mop washing, automatic dust collection, hot - air drying, and automatic water supply and drainage.
Players from different fields flocked into the market. Start - ups like Ecovacs, Roborock, Yunjing, and Dreame received huge amounts of financing one after another. Hardware companies such as Xiaomi, Midea, and Anker Innovations also entered the market through cross - border expansion. The floor - cleaning robot market quickly became a red - ocean market.
The DJI insider revealed that at that time, DJI held an internal competition. At the beginning of the project, there were only six people in the floor - cleaning robot project. Each person had to come up with a complete product plan and report it to Wang Tao one by one. After the reports, they were divided into two groups of three to redesign the plans. One plan was selected through a two - way competition, and then the six people continued to work on it.
At that time, there was no unified consensus on the intelligent cleaning technology solutions among floor - cleaning robot companies. In DJI's view, this was an opportunity. Although the floor - cleaning service in households is different from the aerial scenario of drones, the core logic is the same: how to complete tasks through intelligent navigation, environmental perception, and precise control.
Previously, DJI had accumulated capabilities in perception, visual recognition, path planning, and obstacle - avoidance technology through its drone business. However, the floor - cleaning robot team still encountered many new problems in product implementation.
For example, outdoor 3D scenes usually have rich texture information, while household scenes have relatively simple colors and many repeated colors, making positioning more difficult. In addition, the obstacle - avoidance solutions for drones and floor - cleaning robots are also different. Drones need to avoid obstacles, while floor - cleaning robots need to approach them for cleaning.
Finally, DJI's floor - cleaning robot team equipped the ROMO with the same environmental perception, intelligent path planning, and obstacle - avoidance systems as DJI's drones. When encountering dirt such as pet feces, the robot can also avoid it, reducing the need for user intervention.
However, the DJI ROMO team took a detour in choosing the cleaning solution.
Among the two mainstream cleaning solutions in the market, the roller and the double - mop designs, DJI initially chose the roller design. Although the roller has stronger cleaning power, a lot of dirt is directly rolled in, and it is easy to entangle hair. The sewage tank also becomes dirty and smelly, and it is very difficult to disassemble and assemble, requiring frequent manual intervention.
Finally, the DJI ROMO team adjusted the cleaning solution to the double - mop design. "We always adhere to the design concept of 'zero user intervention,'" a DJI floor - cleaning robot insider told China Entrepreneur.
By April 2024, when the floor - cleaning robot team showed the prototype to Wang Tao, the product was basically ready for market launch. However, in the following year, the team continued to iterate on the appearance and supporting functions.
Some media reported that DJI postponed the launch of the floor - cleaning robot twice internally. The currently launched ROMO is actually the third - generation product, and the first two generations were rejected by Wang Tao.
DJI denied this statement to China Entrepreneur: "The boss hardly intervenes in the project team to make decisions for everyone, nor does he exercise the right of veto. He hopes that the project team can figure things out on their own during the process, lead the team, and make joint decisions."
During the four years when DJI was preparing for the floor - cleaning robot, the market grew rapidly, but the competition also became more intense, and the market concentration increased.
According to IDC report data, in the first quarter of 2025, 1.188 million floor - cleaning robots were shipped in the Chinese market, a year - on - year increase of 21.4%. The shipment growth rate has exceeded 20% for two consecutive quarters. The top five brands in the market, Ecovacs, Roborock, Yunjing, Xiaomi, and Dreame, accounted for more than 90% of the market share.
After the DJI ROMO floor - cleaning robot was launched, its sales performance has been relatively stable. As of September 3, 2025, the sales volume of the floor - cleaning robot on the JD platform exceeded 7,000 units, and more than 3,000 units were sold in the official Taobao flagship store. Some versions were out of stock.
DJI's Cross - Border Logic
To some extent, DJI is interested in the floor - cleaning robot business because its technical capabilities can be reused, and also because DJI's business structure needs a breakthrough.
In the past six months, there have been frequent reports of DJI's technical backbones leaving the company. According to Leifeng.com, in April this year, Li Haonan, a core veteran of DJI's flight system technology platform, left the company and joined Miaodong Technology.
At the end of May, Cao Bo, the founder of DJI's chip imaging system, left the company. At the end of June, Qiu Hualiang, one of DJI's "Three R & D Giants", and Gong Ming, the head of the Shanghai image transmission team, left the company. Qiu once led the Phantom series and was one of DJI's "Four Product Managers"; Gong Ming was the person in charge of the image transmission of the Mavic series and once served as the general manager of the Shanghai branch.
The successive departures of core figures are hardly a coincidence. Although DJI has a deep moat, it is not insurmountable.
In fact, in order to open up new channels, DJI has been expanding its business boundaries in the past decade, extending its reach from drones to imaging technology and from consumer drones to industrial application scenarios such as agriculture and surveying and mapping.
The most typical star product is the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 handheld gimbal camera. Since its launch in October 2023, it has been in short supply and has been jokingly called the "electronic Moutai" by netizens.
The biggest highlight of the Osmo Pocket 3 is that it packs a 1 - inch CMOS sensor into an extremely compact body, achieving a balance between professionalism and portability for the first time in a handheld camera.
DJI itself did not expect the success of the Osmo Pocket 3. Before its launch, DJI's internal expected sales volume was only 300,000 - 400,000 units. However, due to the enthusiastic market feedback, the sales target was continuously raised. Multiple media reported that the sales volume of the Osmo Pocket 3 reached 5 million units in 2024, bringing nearly 20 billion yuan in revenue to DJI.
In December 2023, DJI released its outdoor power supply products, the DJI Power series, to meet the battery needs of outdoor drone users. Before that, DJI had extended its drone business to professional B - end scenarios such as agriculture, surveying and mapping, and power.
During the drone R & D process, DJI also accumulated a large number of core key technologies such as environmental perception and navigation sensors, motion and attitude sensors, autonomous path planning algorithms, and motion control algorithms. The first area where these technologies were reused was DJI Automotive.
In April 2021, DJI Automotive made its official debut at the Shanghai Auto Show and announced cooperation with automakers such as SAIC - GM - Wuling. In 2023, the DJI Automotive department was spun off from DJI and began independent operations.
The electric - assisted bicycle is also a product of this logic. On July 3, 2024, DJI announced the launch of the DJI Avinox electric - assist system, which is a core component in the upstream of the E - Bike industry. On the same day, the all - terrain electric - assisted bicycle Amflow PL, incubated by DJI, was also officially released, with a starting price of 36,000 yuan.
According to the prediction of the market research institution Allied Market Research, the global E - bike market will reach a scale of $118.6 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 10%. The market scale it brings to DJI far exceeds the 20 - billion - yuan ceiling of the consumer drone market previously predicted by Wang Tao.
With the addition of the panoramic camera and floor - cleaning robot categories launched this year, DJI has woven a rich business network around its consumer drone business.
Among them, consumer drones remain its cash cow and profit core. At the same time, DJI's industrial drones and handheld imaging products have become mature growth pillars, achieving self - sufficiency. New cross - border businesses such as floor - cleaning robots and electric - assisted bicycles represent DJI's desire to open up new markets.
DJI Is Not the Only One Wanting to Cross - Border
While DJI is entering the core markets of Insta360 and Dreame from the drone field, the products and technology platforms of Insta360 and Dreame have also reached full maturity. Insta360's stitching and anti - shake algorithm platform and Dreame's high - performance motor platform are both unique in the industry, and the technologies have an overflow demand. Both companies have launched counter - attacks against DJI.
After DJI's panoramic camera was launched, Liu Jingkang posted a "celebratory" post on Weibo late at night and held a lottery. The prizes were 10 Insta360 X5s and 10 DJI Osmo 360 panoramic cameras. He subtly said, "The fogging problem of DJI's panoramic camera (some users complained about the lens fogging) is just an isolated case. Please feel free to purchase."
Similar to Wang Tao, Liu Jingkang also has an "unrestrained" personality. When he was studying at Nanjing University, he once "hacked" into the school's educational administration system, obtained more than 7,000 student ID photos, and created a "standard class face" for each department. He also once deciphered Zhou Hongyi's mobile phone number just by listening to the sound of the phone keypad.
Insta360's start - up and development coincided with the rise of media platforms such as YouTube and the maturity of the Chinese consumer electronics supply chain. Since 2018, Insta360 has surpassed international giants such as Samsung and Ricoh in the panoramic camera field and has ranked first in global market share. Currently, the market share of Insta360's action cameras is second only to GoPro, ranking second in the world. According to the prospectus, Insta360's average gross profit margin has exceeded 50% in the past three years.
Just as DJI expanded from drones to panoramic cameras, Insta360's reverse entry into the drone field is also based on its technical accumulations in imaging algorithms, anti - shake technology, mechanical structure, product design, optics, image processing, and AI.
Liu Jingkang had anticipated DJI's entry into the panoramic camera field long ago. He likes to compare imaging to a game, which is an open rather than a convergent market. Each game has its own independent worldview, rules, and experience. Users value the final shooting effect rather than pure parameter performance.
"DJI's entry into the panoramic camera market is like having a new player in the game world. The game is diverse. We will face some overlapping features and competition in existing functions, but this very much depends on how the two companies create new gameplay or new experiences," Liu Jingkang once told China Entrepreneur.
Yu Hao, the founder of Dreame, which started with floor - cleaning robots, is also a "crazy" technical product manager. He developed a magical skill when he was young: he could identify the model of an airplane just by a little picture and sound when the airplane was flying in the sky.
In his senior year of high school, Yu Hao was recommended to Tsinghua University to study aerospace engineering because of his award in the physics competition. He was also one of the earliest developers of quadcopters in China and the inventor of the tri - copter. In 2015, Dyson's vacuum cleaner exploded in the Chinese market, bringing great inspiration to Yu Hao. In Yu Hao's view, the core of Dyson, the high - speed motor, has some similarities with aerospace technology.
Finally, Yu Hao and his team overcame the high - speed digital motor technology and applied it to intelligent cleaning products such as vacuum cleaners. Around core technologies such as high - speed digital motors, intelligent algorithms, fluid mechanics, and robot control, Dreame has expanded its product line to floor - cleaning robots, wireless vacuum cleaners, intelligent floor scrubbers, and high - speed hair dryers.
In 2023, Yu Hao said in an interview with China Entrepreneur: "There will be intersections between different companies, but the final directions are different. In essence, Dreame is a generalized robot company, which is also the biggest difference between Dreame and its peers in the intelligent cleaning industry." Now,