More than 100 years ago, Neubronne, a German pharmacist and photographer, pioneered the invention of drones by training pigeons to be couriers and fitting them with cameras in order to deliver medicines to patients as quickly as possible. Today, drones have been used in a variety of industries, such as aerial photography, plant protection, military, surveying and mapping. Neubronne probably did not realize that this move created a uav market worth tens of billions of dollars.
Nowadays, the uav industry, the various enterprises are mushrooming and breaking ground. As the top “top 10 Brands of Uav in China in 2018”, DJI has attracted the attention of the world due to its rapid running for several years. However, behind this prosperous scene, the fuse of DJI crisis has been ignited.
Uav enterprises mushroomed, DJI rivals bristly
As the industrial chain matures, uAVs are gaining more and more attention. Once on the fringe of the market, drone manufacturers are also gradually realizing that DJI is not as scary as they imagined. There are many segments in the drone market, and DJI’s main force is in the consumer market. By bypassing this market and starting from other segments, other drone manufacturers have a chance to break through DJI’s stronghold and gain a foothold in the market. In this situation, domestic UAV enterprises contracted and began to specialize in segmented industries, and DJI ushered in a strong rival.
Ehang chose to enter the uav market from the low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manned field. Instead of competing head-on with DJI in the consumer field, ehang took a different approach at low altitude. Since the successful trial of 184 on February 6 this year, Ehang has been on the road of transformation. Then it cooperated with Yonghui Yunchuang, and opened the uav air logistics “smart retail + UAV” distribution mode with yunchuang’s “Super Species” Guangzhou Mansquare store as a pilot, providing customers with more convenient and fast logistics distribution experience. Based on technological precipitation and capital support, Ehang has great development potential in the low-altitude UAV market in the future.
In a battle with DJI for the plant protection drone market, Jiafei has the edge. As a big agricultural country, China has a great demand for scientific and technological products specially for agriculture, such as plant protection UAV. Under such conditions, the market prospect of plant protection UAV is very broad. After a fierce battle in recent years, there are only a handful of survivors in the race to spray pesticides with drones, and GDF and DJI are among them. Plant protection UAV can only be regarded as a new development industry for DJI. Currently, THE main industry of DJI is still consumer UAV, while plant protection UAV is a subdivision industry studied accurately by Jifei Technology. Obviously, in the energy and technology input, Extreme fly technology has a certain advantage.
Zero intelligence control focuses on the police security and mapping market. Zerowisdom took a page out of Dobby’s dismal sales of consumer drones and went back to zero for a year to launch a new product, the ZT-3V fixed-wing drone. It eliminates wings, reduces drag and increases speed, while also increasing payload and endurance. Compared with dJI’s traditional uav layout, Zero makes a comprehensive improvement of many problems existing in UAV. Dji currently has investment in security and mapping market, but the effect is not significant, has not yet formed a climate. If Zerg seize the opportunity and seize the market of these two segments, it is expected to become a strong competitor of DJI.
The front is each way of enterprises to catch up, the rear is the enterprise technology innovation is difficult to break through. Rivals in the pipeline have chosen a starkly different path from DJI. If big jiang is the “apple” in unmanned aerial vehicle (uav) industry, then the rest of the enterprise is “android manufacturers”, big jiang strength, no doubt, in the business but do not underestimate other specializing in niche players, when these “android manufacturer” one go “apple” market share, big jiang will be difficult to hold the position of the leader.
Dji can’t rest easy from now on
In addition to the threat from competitors, DJI has many shortcomings of its own. Since the birth of consumer drones, DJI has been riding high. In the entire uav market, DJI’s sales firmly occupy half of the civilian UAV industry. However, the huge market share does not mean that DJI’s products do not have any defects. The advantage of DJI mainly lies in the large number of users, rather than in the fact that its strength is difficult to surpass.
In terms of strength, dJI’s current product technology still has room for progress. The immature technology development makes DJI consumer UAV have three fears: first, afraid of the urban environment. The city is crowded with skyscrapers and people, so drones cannot fly at will. There are still great risks in aerial uav. Poor technology or improper operation may lead to safety accidents.
Second, fear of bad weather. In storms, thunderstorms or fog, the control signals and reception signals of the UAV decrease rapidly, and the operating performance is greatly reduced. Sometimes, the UAV even cannot be used.
Third, flight is afraid of interference. The uav is equipped with a self-piloting device, which communicates data via fh radio and ground control station, and uses a combination of GPS and inertial navigation for guidance. Therefore, there are many ways to interfere with drones, such as GPS jamming, acoustic jamming, radio hijacking and magnetic jamming.
The focus of the industry is in the consumer market, and DJI has little advantage in other market segments. Dji’s focus is on the consumer market, where it has had a good run, but the industrial market, where it has struggled. Although DJI has entered industrial market fields such as agricultural plant protection and testing, it will not be able to surpass the leading enterprises in the market segment such as Jifei Technology, Yidian Technology and Chengdu Vertical in a short time.
In addition, after-sales service becomes a pain point. The huge market share also makes DJI need to have a strong after-sales service system to support, however, DJI is not satisfactory in this aspect, and is criticized by many consumers. A series of after-sales problems, such as frequent explosion incidents, high after-sales maintenance costs, difficult definition of accident liability, and long waiting time for maintenance, have put DJI into an embarrassing situation.
The rapid development of consumer drones has made DJI a pioneer in the industry. But because it was first, DJI received far more attention than any other company. Dji is shouldering the burden of developing consumer drones, but because no one is ahead of it, it has to work harder.
How does DJI defend its territory?
In its early days, DJI was a mythical presence in the drone industry, building the market for “aerial robots” from scratch. However, as the consumer uav market is approaching saturation, the commercial market has yet to be opened, and there are still strong competitors in the industrial market, DJI needs to bear increasing pressure. Under pressure, how to keep the original territory, expand their territory has become the focus of dJI’s future development.
Dji still dominates the consumer drone market with a huge market share, and if it can continue to dominate the consumer drone market in the future, it will be a lot easier for dJI. According to the analysis of Datong Securities, the market value of domestic UAV will reach 60 billion to 150 billion yuan in the future. At present, DJI owns more than 70% of the market by virtue of its own intellectual property rights. If the situation is stable, the market can be maintained. Although its market share is likely to be eroded by the emergence of small and medium-sized drones, these “disruptors” won’t be able to shake DJI’s market position any time soon. So what can DJI do to strengthen itself in the future?
On the one hand, expanding sales channels will help DJI win more markets. Since 2016, DJI has cooperated with Apple Store to expand purchasing channels for its products, and since then, DJI has become the only Chinese brand in Apple Store. At present, you can enjoy free after-sales warranty for any product purchased from DJI through the official website of DJI, JD, Tmall and Apple Retail stores.
Although DJI has four sales platforms, in fact, there are many large sales platforms in China, such as Suning and Gome, which have huge user numbers. The consumers of these platforms are more than individuals in the unit of family. If dJI can enter the market, it will not only have a higher reputation and hope to enter ordinary families, but also diversified sales channels will increase the sales of products, so that consumers have more ways to buy.
On the other hand, dJI’s future is to continue to innovate the flight imaging system. Dji’s dream is to become the pioneer and leader of global flying image. Without flying image, DJI could not have its current popularity. For the UAV, without the aerial shooting function, it has the same function as the aircraft manufactured by ordinary electronic technology companies. It cannot capture the psychology of curiosity of consumers, stimulate consumption, and raise popularity without market and topic. In the process of aerial photography, the merits and demerits of flight image system directly affect the use effect of aerial photography. When DJI wants to get deep into the aerial drone industry, it can’t get away from flying images.
In recent years, DJI has set its own standards for aerial imaging, and its brief and unhappy partnership with GoPro has strengthened its belief to do its own aerial imaging technology. Coupled with several rounds of financing and sales profits, DJI has been valued at more than $16 billion, and has enough reserves to recruit top talent and research new technologies. The flight imaging system can be further optimized and upgraded. Only by sticking to and focusing on its own professional field can DJI pave the road to become a strong company.
After more than ten years of development, DJI has experienced highs and lows, and finally stands in the position of industry leader, which is inseparable from its own strength. But for DJI now, the ability to walk in the vanguard of the industry is bound to bear the pressure brought by the pioneer. If there is no breakthrough in its own technological innovation ability, it is difficult to expand the road of commercialization. As others rise, DJI may be overtaken by the curve. Want to maintain the status of the leader, DJI is still facing a tough battle, a tough battle to win, in order to continue to stand in the industry peak.
The drone industry is like the sky at dawn. It’s not bright enough, but it will be. The market demand is still growing strongly, and the uav industry is huge and complex. To gain market position in this field, the understanding of the industry must be fully improved, otherwise, the existing accumulation will still face the risk of being eliminated from the market in the future.
Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110