The decline of action camera pioneer GoPro, which was rescued by a buyer last month, has allowed two Chinese rivals to rapidly dominate the market, as the country’s consumer tech brands take their cut-throat competition global.
DJI and Insta360, both based in the southern Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen, now account for more than 90 per cent of global handheld smart camera sales — a category that includes action cameras, panoramic view devices and gimbal cameras — according to consultancy IDC.
They are now engaged in a fierce battle to be the world’s top smart camera maker after displacing GoPro, which was the largest seller by revenue as recently as 2023, according to consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.
Their dominance shows how Chinese producers of consumer electronics are increasingly bringing their technology — and internecine competition — to markets such as the US and Europe.
Chris Pereira, founder of consultancy iMpact, said DJI and Insta360 were exporting Shenzhen’s “civil war”, referring to the intense competition between the city’s start-ups.
“A similar situation happened with robot vacuums,” said Pereira, noting how Chinese companies took over a market created by Roomba maker iRobot, which filed for bankruptcy last year.
“The strong competition . . . in the local Shenzhen market is generating extremely efficient . . . companies that are going overseas now.”
The performance of DJI and Insta360 contrasts with that of GoPro, which first commercialised action cameras in the early 2000s and was seen as a US tech champion.
Its sales have declined precipitously over the years as Chinese competitors innovated more quickly. By the second quarter of this year, GoPro snagged just 3 per cent of the market.
After years of struggling with debt, which totalled $92mn last month, it agreed to be taken over by a US optical hardware company for $285mn, far below its peak valuation of almost $12bn in 2014.
“In recent years, GoPro’s product iteration has been slow,” said Jacky Xue, a 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 search of that growth, the two companies are increasingly encroaching on each other’s territory.
DJI, which dominates the global drone market, has aggressively expanded its offerings, unveiling a panoramic camera called Osmo 360 last year.
At the same time, Insta360, whose panoramic cameras are popular with extreme-sports enthusiasts and vloggers, launched a drone brand.
By the second quarter of this year, DJI held a 73 per cent share of the global smart camera market, while Insta360 took up 20 per cent, though it dominates niche categories such as panoramic cameras.
The pair have sued each other in the US, alleging patent infringements on a range of camera-related products.
DJI said it was investing in research on cameras, accessories and editing software. Recently, it has waded into new categories such as robot vacuums as its drone products face restrictions in the US market.
“Our success comes from our engineering and technical drive, along with a robust user feedback loop,” it said.
Insta360, which opened its first US flagship store in New York last month, told the FT it hoped to be the country’s top smart camera brand.
“We definitely want to become the market leader in this field,” said Max Richter, a vice-president at the company and former DJI staffer.
But it would have to be through rapidly introducing new products, he said, rather than competing on price, given DJI’s larger economies of scale.
The average price of a handheld smart camera has remained constant at about $380 since 2024, according to IDC.
“If we start to compete on price, we would just get into a spiral that probably ends badly for us but also for the whole market,” said Richter.