On November 4, the recently closely watched Insta360 held its third-quarter earnings conference and responded to issues such as the "price war" with DJI and changes in market share of panoramic cameras.

At the earnings conference, an investor asked how to respond to DJI's price war. Liu Jingkang, Chairman of Insta360, responded that promoting incremental growth through market competition is a common goal for the industry.

"The price competition initiated by competitors entering the panoramic camera market has created conditions for market expansion, and more and more consumers have chosen Insta360 due to its differentiated advantages, including replaceable lens hardware design, panoramic cloud storage, AI automatic editing software, and other exclusive software features. These are our core competitiveness in the panoramic camera field," said Liu Jingkang.

Additionally, Insta360 also responded to the issue of "panoramic camera market share."

According to the Jiuqian Mid-Platform report, in the first quarter of the launch of DJI Osmo 360, i.e., the third quarter of 2025, with the global panoramic camera market revenue as the basis, Insta360's market share dropped sharply from 85%~92% to 49%, while DJI captured 43% of the market share. However, the Sullivan report titled "Global Smart Handheld Imaging Equipment Market Development White Paper" presented a completely different picture: In the third quarter of 2025, Insta360 still maintained a 75% global market share. DJI gained 37.1% of the Chinese market share and 17.1% of the global share through its low-price strategy.

Regarding this, Insta360 stated that the accuracy, completeness, and authority of some third-party data cannot be verified and reminded investors to pay attention to the risks.

Public information shows that Insta360 Technology Co., Ltd. (Arashi Vision Inc.), established in 2015, is a high-tech enterprise headquartered in Shenzhen, China, and owns the panoramic camera brand Insta360. The company focuses on the research, development, and sales of smart imaging equipment and is a provider of smart imaging equipment based on panoramic technology. Currently, the company's main product types include consumer-grade smart imaging equipment, professional-grade smart imaging equipment, accessories, and other products.

Insta360, which mainly focuses on panoramic cameras, and DJI, the leading company in the drone industry, are both outstanding in their respective fields. However, in recent months, they have had frequent friction. Both companies launched attacks on each other's territories almost at the same time, with a kind of "telepathic" understanding. On July 23, Insta360 officially announced its entry into the drone market, planning to launch its own brand and third-party collaborative drone products; DJI then announced the release of an 8K ultra-high-end panoramic camera - Osmo 360, one week later on July 31. Since then, a "two-way cross-industry" business war has been continuously intensifying.

Insta360 A1 Panoramic Drone

Previously, DJI's price cuts became a hot topic across the internet. On October 9, the topic "some DJI products reduced nearly a thousand yuan" was on the trending list, causing heated discussions. According to multiple e-commerce platforms, DJI's official stores showed that multiple products, including gimbal cameras, action cameras, phone stabilizers, wireless microphones, and drones, were reduced in price between October 9 and October 14. For example, one of the star products, the gimbal camera POCKET 3, was discounted by as much as 900 yuan, with the promotional price starting at 2799 yuan.

DJI had previously responded to the price reduction issue to the Shanghai Daily, stating, "This price adjustment is a regular promotion arrangement by DJI for 'Double 11'. To help consumers understand the price information in advance and better plan their purchasing decisions, we have made an announcement through relevant channels about this adjustment."

Unforeseen, Liu Jingkang, the chairman of Insta360, apologized for DJI's price cut. At that time, Liu Jingkang said that there might be a part of the reason due to Insta360 that led DJI to significantly reduce prices, and to express his apology, customers who purchased DJI products between October 2 and October 8 could obtain a 100-yuan no-conditions voucher from Insta360 by showing their orders on Weibo.

However, this marketing approach, which can be described as "kicking someone when they're down," caused public resentment, with criticisms of "riding on DJI's popularity" being incessant. Eventually, Liu Jingkang admitted that the remarks were "very controversial" and accepted the criticism.

It is not difficult to understand that Insta360's decision to "expand territory" is due to the development of its niche market being blocked and the slowing growth rate, forcing it to seek new growth points through cross-industry ventures. Financial data shows that from 2023 to the first quarter of this year, Insta360's net profit attributable to shareholders grew at a slower pace, decreasing from 103.7% to 2.5%, and the net profit margin decreased from 22.8% to 13.0%.

However, entering the drone market is not only facing competitive pressure from industry leader DJI but also potential risks of being "attacked at home." The impact has already reflected in Insta360's latest financial data.

Insta360's latest third-quarter financial report shows that the company achieved a revenue of 2.94 billion yuan in the third quarter, representing a year-on-year increase of 92.64%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the company in the third quarter was 272 million yuan, representing a year-on-year decrease of 15.9%.

Regarding the decline in net profit, Liu Jingkang responded that the net profit was affected by factors such as R&D investment, marketing rhythm, and product category layout. The company clearly views some short-term expenses as necessary investments for future competitiveness, which is a stage characteristic of the company's proactive strategic adjustment, rather than a passive situation of "increasing revenue without increasing profit."

At the same time, the company will further strengthen cost and expense control, implement detailed management comprehensively, reduce unnecessary expenditures, effectively control costs and expenses, improve the efficiency of capital use, and strive to maintain stable gross margin and net profit levels.

When talking about the reasons for the layout of the drone business, Liu Jingkang analyzed that the main reasons include: first, driven by the company's mission and vision; second, the company sees unsatisfied market demands and sufficient market and business growth space that can create market increment; third, the business will drive the company's growth and enhance the twelve-sided capabilities. When formulating the strategic direction of new businesses, product layout always revolves around core capability construction. Even if certain areas face intense competition, as long as these areas involve the technological capability accumulation required by the company's strategy, the company will still enter them in a measured way.

From the latest statements, it seems that short-term business pressure does not affect Insta360's determination to continue pushing forward its drone brand.

In its third-quarter report, Insta360 stated that based on the judgment of industry development trends and the company's medium- and long-term strategic planning, Insta360 plans to launch two drone brands, including its own drone brand and the Antigravity panoramic drone brand co-hatched with a third party.

As of now, the drone brand business of Insta360 has proceeded smoothly according to the planned schedule, with the public test of the Antigravity panoramic drone brand by Insta360 nearing completion. It is initially expected that the Antigravity panoramic drone product will be available for trial sales in some regional markets in the fourth quarter of 2025, and the actual sales time may be adjusted due to factors such as supply chain support, international logistics, changes in the market environment, and optimization of test results.

Evidently, Insta360 and DJI will still find it difficult to determine the winner in the short term. Whether in the panoramic camera market or the drone market, it is no easy task to surpass the other in their "home ground." However, this battle may become a key campaign to reshape the industry structure. Whoever can balance "defending the city" and "expanding territory" will win the next decade.

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Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7569156982934979110/

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