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The decline of action camera pioneer GoPro, which was rescued by a buyer last month, has allowed two Chinese rivals to quickly dominate the market, as the country’s consumer technology brands globalize their fierce competition.
DJI and Insta360, both based in southern China’s tech hub Shenzhen, now account for more than 90% of global sales of wearable smart cameras – a category that includes action cameras, surround-view cameras and gimbal cameras – according to consultancy IDC.
They are now engaged in an uphill battle to become the world’s leading smart camera maker after supplanting GoPro, which was the biggest seller by revenue as recently as 2023, according to consultancy Frost & Sullivan.
Their dominance shows how Chinese consumer electronics producers are increasingly bringing their technology – and their internecine competition – to markets like the United States and Europe.
Chris Pereira, founder of consultancy iMpact, said DJI and Insta360 were exporting Shenzhen’s “civil war”, referring to the intense competition between start-ups in the city.
“A similar situation happened with robot vacuum cleaners,” Pereira said, highlighting how Chinese companies took over a market created by Roomba maker iRobot, which filed for bankruptcy last year.
“Heavy competition…in the local Shenzhen market is generating highly efficient businesses…which are now expanding overseas. »
The performance of DJI and Insta360 contrasts with that of GoPro, which first brought action cameras to market in the early 2000s and was considered an American champion of the technology.
Its sales fell precipitously over the years as Chinese competitors innovated more quickly. By the second quarter of this year, GoPro had captured just 3% of the market.
After years of struggling with debt, which stood at $92 million as of last month, it agreed to be bought by a U.S. optical equipment company for $285 million, well below its peak valuation of nearly $12 billion in 2014.
“In recent years, GoPro product iteration has been slow,” said Jacky Xue, research manager at IDC. “Meanwhile, Chinese vendors such as Insta360 and DJI have seized the market opportunity. They all want to find new growth.”
In pursuit of this growth, the two companies are increasingly encroaching on each other’s territory.
DJI, which dominates the global drone market, has been aggressively expanding its offerings, unveiling a panoramic camera called the Osmo 360 last year.
At the same time, Insta360, whose panoramic cameras are popular with extreme sports enthusiasts and vloggers, is launching a brand of drones.
As of the second quarter of this year, DJI had 73% of the global smart camera market, while Insta360 had 20%, although it dominates niche categories such as panoramic cameras.
The two men sued each other in the United States, alleging patent violations on a range of camera-related products.
DJI said it was investing in research into cameras, accessories and editing software. Recently, it has entered new categories such as robot vacuum cleaners as its drone products face restrictions in the US market.
“Our success comes from our engineering and technical dynamism, as well as a strong user feedback loop,” he said.
Insta360, which opened its first US flagship store in New York last month, told the FT it hoped to become the country’s leading smart camera brand.
“We absolutely want to become the market leader in this area,” said Max Richter, company vice president and former DJI staffer.
But that would require introducing new products quickly, he said, rather than competing on price, given DJI’s greater economies of scale.
The average price of a wearable smart camera has remained constant at around $380 since 2024, according to IDC.
“If we start competing on price, we will enter a spiral that will probably end badly for us but also for the entire market,” Richter said.
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