In 2017, Insta360, with its innovative "Eagle Eye" panoramic overlook video, quickly gained popularity by strapping a camera cleverly onto an eagle, allowing viewers to clearly see the eagle's head and the surrounding 360° panoramic scenery. This unprecedented perspective greatly satisfied people's curiosity and truly brought panoramic cameras into the public eye.
Attached to the eagle was Insta360's first hit product - the Nano, also the world's smallest 360° panoramic camera. Within just two weeks of its launch, the Nano panoramic camera gained exposure and attention from millions of users both at home and abroad, becoming a favorite among adventurers, sports enthusiasts, and travel bloggers overnight. It even became the first Chinese smart hardware product recommended by Facebook. During the 2016 Double Creation Period, the first panoramic group photo taken with Nano by Premier Li Keqiang became widely circulated.
With the panoramic camera as its "golden key," Insta360 quickly rose to the forefront of the panoramic sports imaging field, maintaining its leading position in the global panoramic camera market for five consecutive years with a market share exceeding 50%. Its products are available in over 200 countries and regions, and the iconic brand slogan "Think Bold" has become well-known and recognized by consumers.
The emergence of Insta360 panoramic sports cameras has become another milestone achievement for Chinese technology brands. Subsequently, it has successively launched diverse products such as VR cameras, thumb cameras, and gimbals, continuously leveraging the global market, becoming one of China's most promising global brands.
Seizing the opportunity of the times
In 2015, the civilian VR device market was booming. Top companies like Facebook, Samsung, Google, Sony, and HTC all launched VR device plans, igniting massive growth and gradually penetrating various vertical industry applications.
Young and innovative, Insta360 seized this market opportunity and successfully entered the market during the VR wave.
In July 2016, Insta360 launched its first product, the "Insta360 Nano," as an entry-level VR camera. By directly connecting to smartphones, Insta360 Nano enabled instant shooting and sharing, reducing the usage threshold for ordinary consumers and allowing all users to easily capture and share images in 360 degrees without blind spots. In January and August 2017, Insta360 successively released the professional VR camera "Insta360 Pro" and the panoramic sports camera "Insta360 One." Insta360 Pro greatly simplified the professional VR video production process, while Insta360 One marked Insta360's official entry into the panoramic sports camera segment.
Around 2018, with the rapid rise of TikTok overseas, the boom in short video creation swept in. Leveraging this trend, Insta360 took a different approach, changing the industry's habit of focusing solely on technical battles for traditional tech products and instead choosing to start with "content marketing," helping camera users "realize creativity and express themselves." This strategy captured a large number of loyal content creator users in the United States, Europe, Japan, and South Korea in various overseas markets. Meanwhile, Insta360 leveraged social media platforms and successively reached strategic cooperation with brands such as Google, Adobe, Facebook, and Twitter, becoming a recommended brand by Facebook.
Moving on to the third wave of outdoor economic boom after the pandemic, activities such as camping, hiking, frisbee, rock climbing, and cycling represent huge consumer markets. This provided Insta360 with more rich usage scenarios, and the company continued to introduce a variety of panoramic sports camera products at a frequency of every six months. For example, Insta360 pioneered the "Invisible Selfie Stick," which, through a combination of fisheye lenses and software stitching algorithms, completely eliminates the selfie stick connected to the camera in the picture, triggering a wave of attention and gaining favor among sports enthusiasts and travel bloggers. At the same time, coupled with the ONE series of panoramic sports cameras, Insta360 also leveraged a new market worth billions of dollars.
According to public data, the ONE series achieved sales revenue exceeding CNY 70 million in its second year on the market, accounting for 29.03% of the company's overall revenue. Soon after, Insta360 upgraded the ONE series to the X series, establishing it as the brand's best-selling flagship model. This series once drove the company's annual sales performance to grow by nearly CNY 200 to 300 million.
It can be said that Insta360 has almost grasped every new opportunity and trend, which is quite commendable.
Technological innovation is the foundation
Insta360's founder, Liu Jingkang, was born in 1991 and graduated from the Software School of Nanjing University in 2010. He possesses a series of common labels of young founders: innovation, adventure, passion. According to media reports, during his time at university, Liu Jingkang once used the student photos in Nanjing University's database to synthesize "standard faces" for various departments of Nanjing University. He also cracked the phone number of Zhou Hongyi, chairman of 360, based on telephone dialing tones during his junior year and received offers from Kai-fu Lee, chairman of Innovation Works, and Zhou Hongyi on Weibo.
However, Liu Jingkang's entrepreneurial success not only relies on inspiration but also benefits from his high regard for research and development innovation. Under his personal leadership, the proportion of Insta360's R&D personnel is close to 50%, and R&D expenses have steadily increased, breaking through the billion-dollar mark. According to Insta360's prospectus, from 2018 to 2020, Insta360's R&D expenses were CNY 40.2594 million, CNY 90.9245 million, and CNY 102.7 million, respectively, accounting for 15.59%, 15.47%, and 12.08% of operating income.
As of the end of June 2021, the company owns 238 authorized patents at home and abroad. The core technologies developed independently include panoramic image acquisition and stitching technology, anti-shake technology, AI image processing technology, computational photography technology, software development technology frameworks, modular waterproof camera design technology, etc. Currently, the company has become a nationally recognized "little giant" enterprise specializing in specific new fields and has achieved global leadership in the panoramic field.
"Innovation is Insta360's vitality," said Insta360 CSO Yuan Yue in an interview with the media. In his view, innovation has two very critical factors: insight, innovation without insight is like water without a source; efficiency, innovation is only called innovation when it is done faster than others. "Using technological innovation to promote brand globalization is the key to the deep globalization of Chinese enterprises and the key word for the future globalization of Chinese brands."
Enabling Consumers to Spontaneously Advocate for Brands Through "Grassroots" Endorsement
"Grassroots" endorsement, literally implying the cultivation of seeds into lush grass, refers to the process whereby consumers, while using/purchasing a particular product, discover its highlights and share their usage/purchase experiences on social platforms, thereby inciting a desire in more consumers to experience/possess it.
With the proliferation of "grassroots" content on social platforms, brands have realized that user-generated content from various perspectives, scenarios, and formats can generate more dividends for the brand. Consequently, many brands have begun to focus on "grassroots marketing," strategically positioning themselves on various social platforms. Consequently, what was originally purely user-generated "grassroots" content has become a brand behavior, with many brands leveraging advanced user endorsements to successfully promote new products and achieve commendable results.
Insta360, operating in the era of the sharing economy, is one of the beneficiaries of this strategy. In 2021, a Japanese KOL filmed himself running with an Insta360 panoramic camera held in his mouth, unexpectedly achieving a "Attack on Titan" effect. This creative approach swiftly sparked a trend of imitation on various social media platforms worldwide. Insta360 recognized this market trend and promptly launched the "NoseMode" campaign, encouraging more users to participate in creating content. To date, this series of activities has yielded dozens of videos with millions of views globally, significantly enhancing Insta360's brand assets.
"Our brand DNA is bold and unconventional. We aim to inspire everyone to propose good ideas and creativity through excellent products and technology, exploring the infinite possibilities of imaging together. To foster such a collaborative atmosphere, we initiated the 'Think Bold' Challenge Fund, inviting ideas from users worldwide. Insta360 sponsors users to create high-quality content, helping everyone realize their boldest ideas and thoughts," shared Yuan Yue, CSO of Insta360, at the "2023 Globalization Forum" (GGF2023) hosted by EqualOcean in November 2023.
Furthermore, leveraging the brand concept of "Think Bold," Insta360 continuously expands its horizons in content creation, vigorously encouraging and guiding users to create original content (UGC) and share it on social platforms. Particularly on its Instagram brand official account, which almost reaches daily updates, as of March 5, 2024, the account has amassed 1.87 million followers, ranking among the top tier of Chinese consumer electronics brands in terms of popularity. This not only solidifies the brand's existing user stickiness but also continuously enhances brand exposure by leveraging users' creative ideas, capturing more potential consumers, and driving the growth momentum of Insta360 in overseas markets with a constant influx of creative inspiration and content from users.
Heading towards DJI and Globalization
Turning to DJI, a prominent player in the field of action cameras, it echoes Insta360 in terms of strategy and success in the global market. Established in Shenzhen, like Insta360, DJI has over 15 years of experience and was ranked 20th with a brand valuation of 125 billion yuan in the "Global Unicorn List" released by Hurun in 2023. As one of China's most successful global brands, its experience in "DJI-style globalization" is worth emulating by future generations.
One of the key experiences lies in the rational expansion of product categories to broaden the business scope. In 2019, DJI, the "drone king," announced a comprehensive entry into the action camera and panoramic camera markets, releasing its first action camera, the "DJI Osmo Action," in May. Although entering the market slightly later, DJI quickly rose to become a key player in the action camera field, leveraging its abundant funds and solid customer base. The decision to enter this strategic market was based on two considerations. Firstly, after becoming the leading consumer drone company, DJI sought new growth areas, aiming for 25% of future revenue to come from the imaging sector, namely action cameras. Secondly, action cameras share intrinsic similarities with aerial drones, such as "recording," "motion," "real-time," and "special perspectives," attracting highly overlapping potential customers. This strategy was validated by the explosive sales of the DJI Osmo Action after its release.
Secondly, leveraging media influence through targeted KOL marketing and mainstream media reviews is a crucial aspect of DJI's brand promotion and the key driving force behind achieving "brand > product." Collaboration with KOLs is characterized by choosing "suitable" rather than merely "popular" influencers. By leveraging the influence and professionalism of seasoned imaging experts and top tech bloggers, such as Casey Neistat, a filmmaker with 12.6 million subscribers on YouTube, and the tech review channel "Unbox Therapy," DJI successfully educates users. Additionally, mainstream media such as The Verge, The Wall Street Journal, and PCMag have conducted comprehensive reviews of DJI products, helping DJI establish its industry position. DJI's product reviews are widespread on technology forums, covering aspects such as appearance, features, price, and experience, cleverly leveraging UGC for viral dissemination. Presently, DJI's official Instagram account, DJI_Global, boasts 3.981 million followers, with multiple videos garnering over 50,000 likes, a level of popularity rarely seen among Chinese consumer electronics brands. In contrast, Insta360, a rising star, still has many consumers to attract and a long way to go.
Furthermore, in terms of management, DJI has abandoned the traditional "command and control" model centered around Chinese employees in management teams. The company's management consists entirely of an international team, from Vincent Richier, the policy director for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, to Michael Parry, the general manager for North America. DJI's offices worldwide continually create optimal value for the company: managing logistics in Hong Kong, camera research and development in Tokyo, and creative teams in Los Angeles and government relations teams in New York, each performing their respective duties.
Moreover, in terms of strategy, DJI chose to establish its overseas presence before focusing on the domestic market, allowing numerous domestic smart hardware companies to see the direction. Public data shows that DJI's overseas revenue accounts for 80%, with North America and Europe being the top two markets. Additionally, DJI actively explores beyond consumer scenarios, establishing an industry applications department in 2015, covering areas such as agriculture, security and rescue, oil, grid inspection, and construction engineering. After obtaining financing in April 2018, DJI further revealed plans to focus on expanding markets related to AI medical imaging, education, and visual, algorithmic, image processing, and integrated chip technology.
In contrast, Insta360's development strategy shares some similarities with DJI. Apart from vigorously encouraging and guiding users to create content and share it on social platforms, Insta360 also focused on overseas markets from its inception. The main reason is the apparent difference in user circles between the domestic and international panoramic camera markets—niche and vertical in China, more mature and close to mass consumption abroad, with most of its main revenue coming from developed countries and regions such as the United States, Japan, and Europe, with overseas revenue accounting for over 70%. In January 2020, the company officially announced its Chinese brand name, "影石" ("Ying Shi"), seemingly indicating that its "overseas first, domestic later" strategic layout has been largely completed, with the next goal being to focus on the domestic market. Meanwhile, Insta360 continues to pay attention to emerging industry technologies, continuously pushing the boundaries of imagination. By combining with China's technology industry supply chain and engineers, the company creates more innovative products in the imaging market. Especially relying on professional-grade panoramic VR camera products like Pro2 and Titan series, Insta360 quietly accumulates strength in the B2B market and VR field, providing solutions for various industries including real estate, healthcare, education, construction, smart factories, and panoramic live streaming.
The tremendous success DJI has achieved in presenting the business cards of "Chinese innovation" and "Chinese smart manufacturing" to the world has inspired numerous companies to replicate the success of "DJI-style globalization" and march towards globalization. Like DJI, Insta360 has also used the combination of "technology + marketing" to break through barriers and become a rising star that leverages the market, setting an example for brand globalization.
Bottome Line
Insta360 not only lowers the threshold for cutting-edge technology, making it accessible to ordinary people with handheld cameras capable of capturing moments that can spawn movies in the hands of ordinary people, but also extends its use cases and expands its product categories based on panoramic imaging technology. Last year, it even launched its consumer-grade flagship panoramic camera X series into near-earth orbit satellites over 500 kilometers away from Earth, returning romantic satellite-first perspective images. "We look forward to helping people share and record life better."
However, the challenge for Insta360 in the future lies in how to finely polish the quality of its products and shooting results beyond breaking through on social media platforms, truly achieving "easier shooting experiences, higher video/audio quality, more convenient post-editing, and cooler effects," and turning fans from being impressed momentarily into long-term trust and followership. At the same time, continually increasing market share in overseas markets on the global stage, increasing investment in research and development in optical imaging, artificial intelligence, and other fields, establishing a Chinese independent high-tech brand, and truly achieving brand globalization are the anticipated prospects for Insta360.