DJI, One move decides the game.
In the tech circle, there is a very interesting phenomenon: when a company achieves extreme success, it goes beyond the category of an "enterprise" and becomes a generic term.
For example, Google and Taobao have become verbs, while Apple and DJI have become adjectives.
DJI is an innovative model that pioneered the consumer drone market. It is also a giant that occupies 70% of the market share in a market worth $26.1 billion. Amidst a shower of flowers and applause: DJI's products were selected as one of the top ten technology products of the year by the US magazine Time; the company was also named one of the world's top ten most innovative companies by the US authoritative business magazine Fast Company, ranking third globally.
Its market success has made DJI a star and an object that countless people try to learn from and refer to.
Some people try to dissect its corporate culture. The message to new employees, "DJI is a pure land, a place for pure entrepreneurship and artists born for their dreams," has been regarded by countless enterprises as the guiding principle for building an innovative team.
But more people try to directly replicate DJI's success: they plunge into the drone market, hoping to get a share of the multi - billion - dollar market. So, in the market, there are players in the second echelon trying to shake DJI's position in the consumer - grade market, and there are also players based on vertical scenarios, starting from niche businesses to try their luck; there are also consumer electronics giants, with their distribution channels and good reputation, trying to test the waters.
Recently, the leak of news about DJI's plan to enter the panoramic drone market has torn open memories that have been dormant for years. On this "path of challengers," many players who have entered the game have left after a brief flurry of activity.
Only DJI still maintains a 70% share of the global consumer - grade drone market. In the action camera market, its logo watermark has become a new "electronic luxury brand" and hit the hot search. DJI seems to have only peers, but no real competitors.
Lighthouse
DJI has no real competitors, but its existence is like a lighthouse standing in a blue ocean, guiding all those who want a share of the market on which direction to aim.
Since last July, this trend has become particularly obvious. Some panoramic camera players have launched their own gimbal series products, benchmarking against DJI's Pocket series; by August this year, they even announced their entry into the drone market, trying to break a crack in DJI's absolute dominance through panoramic drones.
In various public occasions and market actions, many latecomers never hide their admiration and fear of DJI. Even the founder of a peer company said directly on WeChat Moments: "DJI is a top - level marathon runner who can make more people run faster. 'Do you choose to stay in the novice village or choose a devil coach?'"
The capital market is always willing to pay for the aggressive postures of latecomers, gilding them with titles like "the second DJI" or "the DJI of a certain industry" in exchange for real - money stock price returns.
"The capital market loves stories, and the media likes to say that a certain brand is attacking DJI's territory, but is there really anyone who can be DJI's competitor?"
Regarding this frenzy in the capital market, an investor close to DJI was the first to pose this question to us.
In terms of scale, DJI's revenue in 2024 was 80 billion yuan, and behind it are 38,000 patents, forming an impregnable technological fortress. Just the planned R & D investment of 30 billion yuan from 2024 to 2030 over seven years is more than five times the revenue of its peers.
In terms of distribution channels, DJI has more than 470 offline stores, leading its peers.
Most importantly, the 70% absolute market share gives DJI control over the supply chain. In various true and false rumors about DJI, it is not uncommon for DJI to ask the supply chain to come up with more than a dozen versions of solutions due to a one - millimeter error, battery life, or lens distortion. This control also puts great pressure on the industry. It is widely rumored in the industry that Wang Tao pays attention to details like how many fingers should be used to tighten a screw, to what extent it should be tightened, and what kind of screw glue corresponds to what degree of tightness. Each of the hundreds of screws in the flight control system has its own standard.
However, it is precisely this extreme control over the supply chain that not only enables DJI to produce the best drones but also allows it to launch many cost - effective products. For the same flagship - level action camera, while the flagship products of its peers are priced at 2,698 yuan, DJI can keep the prices of OSMO Action 4 and OSMO Action 5 Pro slightly lower than similar products. For gimbal products, while peers price them at 900 yuan, DJI can launch products of the same level at 700 yuan.
OSMO Action 4
From this perspective, whether it is drones, panoramic cameras, or the so - called panoramic drones, DJI is neither a follower nor a passive target. Instead, it is more like a low - key industry leader, calmly defining the speed and standards of the industry.
Chess Game
If we sort out the actions of DJI and its competitors in recent years, it is not difficult to find that DJI has always preferred to stay silent in public opinion; in terms of products, it takes an offensive approach as a form of defense, launching a dimensionality - reduction strike.
In terms of products, DJI's cross - border challengers have two core high - ground areas: one is panoramic cameras, and the other is action cameras.
As early as 2021, DJI launched a lightning attack on the action camera market. In October of that year, DJI launched the action camera Osmo Action 2, which became an instant hit. According to BCN data, in just two years, DJI rose to the second place in the entire industry. By the end of last year, DJI's market share had increased to 32.1%, only two percentage points behind the leading foreign brand in the industry and a full 14 percentage points ahead of the third - ranked brand.
If the action camera was just a simple trial, then DJI's offensive - as - defense stance is particularly evident in the case of panoramic cameras.
On July 24th this year, DJI posted an article on its official WeChat account titled "July 31st, 20:00 | A Glimpse of the World in an Inch." A week later, DJI's first panoramic camera, Osmo 360, was officially launched.
Osmo 360
From a product positioning perspective, Osmo 360 is a typical flagship product. In terms of technical details, through two customized 1 - inch square sensors, Osmo 360 is the first to bring one - inch image quality to a panoramic camera, increasing the sensor utilization rate by 25% and making the total area 1.5 times that of the sensors in similar flagship products. It is also worth mentioning that before DJI, all panoramic cameras in the industry used the same rectangular CMOS as ordinary cameras. In panoramic mode, only the central square part of the sensor actually works, resulting in a great waste of hardware performance.
But what is more representative is the pricing of Osmo 360. Priced at 2,999 yuan, it is 300 yuan cheaper than similar flagship products. With national subsidy policies, the actual purchase price for users drops directly to 2,500 yuan, a full 800 yuan lower than its competitors.
As a result, once Osmo 360 was launched, it sold out on the official website within an hour. After more than a month of sales, it seems to be taking over half of the panoramic market. It is hard to say whether it will replicate the success of the super - popular Osmo Pocket 3 handheld gimbal camera a few years ago.
DJI has mastered the formula of "brand endorsement + supply - chain control + R & D dimensionality - reduction strike."
It is not difficult to predict that a similar strategy will probably be repeated on the panoramic drone battlefield half a year later.
Multiple sources have confirmed that DJI initiated the project for a panoramic drone as early as 2022. After multiple rounds of scheme iterations, the final version was determined this year. Currently, the product has entered the production scheduling phase and is expected to be officially launched around New Year's Day in 2026.
As spy photos circulated across the internet, more and more details have been revealed: this is a lightweight panoramic drone with a fully enclosed propeller arm design similar to the Avata series. In terms of imaging, it uses a panoramic lens with a rotatable gimbal, and its configuration refers to that of Osmo 360, with 8K60fps and 10 - bit D - LogM parameters maxed out, and it will probably support a 1 - inch panoramic imaging sensor.
In terms of image transmission, DJI's panoramic drone will probably be equipped with the DJI O4 image transmission system, which is currently DJI's most mainstream solution and can ensure high - definition image transmission over a distance of at least 10 kilometers. In terms of obstacle avoidance, judging from the spy photos, this product will probably be equipped with binocular or even lidar obstacle - avoidance systems, making it adaptable to various extreme environments.
36Kr has also learned from within DJI that the company positions this product with top - notch configurations and aims to keep the price the lowest among similar products in the same echelon.
Then, a new question arises: since DJI is so decisive in its market actions, why doesn't it also be high - profile in its publicity and "respond to everything" to participate in the media frenzy?
Inaction
In the view of a supply - chain insider close to DJI, there are actually two reasons behind DJI's silence.
Firstly, it is DJI's consistent style to talk less and do more.
Secondly, "if others use you for traffic, and you respond, aren't you just helping them with their hype and admitting that peers far behind you pose a threat? Just like when you read a novel, in Jin Yong's Demigods and Semi - Devils, at first, don't you have the illusion that Murong Fu is actually on par with Qiao Feng?"
In the past, benchmarking against the industry leader has almost been the standard path for latecomers in various industries. At the product launches of Android phones, each company pays tribute to Apple on one hand and benchmarks against it on the other. They use minor innovations in the supply chain, such as cameras and screens, to claim to "outperform" Apple. For Apple, not responding only results in a minor loss in media presence, while responding means acknowledging the false target set by the other party - yes, a phone with five cameras on the back can indeed seem to compete with Apple.
Similar cases are not limited to the consumer electronics field.
Latecomers in all industries often try to boost their own status by tying themselves to the industry leader. In psychology, we call this the "Anchoring Effect" - users often judge unfamiliar things based on a known reference point. If there are absolute leaders like Apple and DJI in the industry, latecomers will create new terms and make infinite subdivisions to lower the user's cognitive threshold and enhance brand influence.
For example, PepsiCo benchmarks against Coca - Cola, targeting the younger generation. Through blind taste tests of cola, it has occupied the market segment of young cola drinkers. Another example is the new hair - dryer brands in recent years, which tie themselves to Dyson. Starting from high - speed motors, they promote products with the same performance but higher cost - effectiveness and become popular overnight.
However, different from the diverse needs for cola and the mature supply chain for hair dryers, the threshold and requirements for drones are far beyond those of ordinary consumer electronics or consumer goods, and the so - called panoramic drones are no exception.
Most panoramic shooting on the market still relies on multi - lens stitching, with problems such as unnatural stitching, obvious color differences, and lag in real - time preview. On the ground, such issues can be overlooked due to cost - effectiveness, but in the sky, against the background of high - dynamic flight, the already distorted and stitched images will shake violently, and cases of drone crashes and signal disconnections are common.
A panoramic drone is not a simple combination of a panoramic camera and propellers to fly in the sky, nor can it be perfected through user beta - testing of an app. Its safety, convenience, stability, and overall performance standards are far higher than those of ordinary drones.
A simple example is that when facing strong winds, high speeds, and complex terrains, traditional stabilization solutions are no longer effective. DJI's stabilization solution that integrates mechanical, optical, and electronic technologies is not only an industry benchmark but also an area that most peers have not yet explored. From early hovering drift and control delays to the current one - touch flight and even complex formation performances, DJI has made the flight control as smooth and natural as a user's own organ.
The same goes for the power system. Agricultural drones need to fly fully loaded for long periods, and consumer - grade models need to cope with extreme environments such as high altitudes, strong winds, and low temperatures. DJI has conducted a large number of high - cost actual tests: agricultural drones have been repeatedly tested for battery life and load - carrying capacity in tens of thousands of acres of farmland, and a super - drone delivered 30 catties of supplies to Mount Everest in just 12 minutes - behind this is the accumulation of extreme data in oxygen - deprived, low - temperature, and windy conditions.
