--- title: "It's time to reassess Chinese cameras" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/242221329.md" description: "The Duel of the Industrial Chain" datetime: "2025-05-28T13:07:32.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/242221329.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/242221329.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/242221329.md) generator: "portal-rs" --- # It's time to reassess Chinese cameras At 3 a.m. Eastern Time on April 22, a line began to form at the Insta360 pop-up store in New York's Grand Central Station, all for a new product launched by a Chinese manufacturer—the panoramic camera X5. This manufacturer is the YingShi ChuangXin Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Insta360"), which is set to launch its IPO on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board on May 30. Insta360's IPO journey has not been smooth. Since applying for listing in 2020, it has taken nearly five years, and it is finally about to become the first camera terminal brand to land on the A-share market. Founded just 10 years ago, Insta360 has achieved a compound annual growth rate of 65% in revenue over the past three years, with its core product, the panoramic camera, holding the top global market share for six consecutive years, reaching 67% in 2023, an increase of over 20 percentage points compared to 2021. In the action camera sector, it ranks second only to the long-standing industry leader GoPro. Over the past 15 years, as smartphones with increasingly powerful photography functions have rapidly proliferated, the traditional camera market has been shrinking, while the Chinese cameras represented by Insta360 have risen by seizing the dividends of social networks and the streaming media era. In 2024, Insta360 achieved revenue and net profit attributable to the parent company of 5.6 billion yuan and 1 billion yuan, respectively. In comparison, the former king of action cameras, GoPro, still had revenue of 5.8 billion yuan but suffered a net loss of over 3.1 billion yuan. This success is attributed to Insta360's agile product iteration, continuously launching higher resolutions of 4K and 8K, over 80 minutes of battery life, AI automatic editing, and more features to meet user needs; as well as the saturation support from the consumer electronics supply chain represented by Shenzhen. ## Crisis and Reconstruction For decades, from film to digital, every technological change in the camera industry has been firmly controlled by Japanese manufacturers represented by Nikon and Canon, while Chinese manufacturers have struggled to find a place. However, the widespread adoption of smartphones over a decade ago completely overturned the game rules of the camera industry. As the market share of compact cameras was replaced by the increasingly powerful iPhone lenses, the good days of growth for traditional camera manufacturers began to come to an end. Canon (7751.T), once the global camera leader, has seen its revenue regress to levels from 17 years ago in 2007, with net profit down to 70% of that year; Nikon (7731.T), which ranked among the top three globally, is projected to have a revenue of 35.9 billion yuan in the 2025 fiscal year, only 80% of what it was a decade ago; Leica, representing the high-end of the industry, delisted in 2012 and later became an imaging supplier for smartphone manufacturers like Huawei and Xiaomi. As smartphone lenses that are upgraded year by year couple with continuously evolving imaging algorithms, only users who need everyday photography will consciously abandon the redundant and useless compact cameras However, before the traditional camera market began to decline, the demand for shooting in scenarios such as sports and outdoor activities created a new growth curve. In 2004, before smartphones were fully widespread, 28-year-old Nicholas Woodman launched the first action camera designed for sports scenarios, which later influenced the camera market: GoPro. In the years following its release, GoPro's sales nearly doubled every year. Looking back, GoPro rode the wave of multiple factors resonating in an era marked by the development and iteration of communication technology, the growing prosperity of smartphones and mobile internet, and the rise of streaming platforms like YouTube. Even Woodman himself acknowledged the catalytic effect of consumers no longer buying point-and-shoot cameras on GoPro— "This allowed them to have money to buy products like GoPro cameras, which are highly differentiated from smartphones." Due to the lack of competitors, GoPro became synonymous with action cameras at the time, and its performance saw rapid growth. In just four years from 2011 to 2014, GoPro's revenue skyrocketed from 1.7 billion yuan to 10 billion yuan, nearly a fivefold increase; during the same period, net profit surged from 200 million yuan to 900 million yuan. This rapid growth made GoPro a star in the capital market, with even Apple's top supplier Foxconn investing $200 million in GoPro in 2012. In 2014, GoPro made a strong debut on the NASDAQ market, raising $433 million, becoming the largest IPO in the consumer electronics sector at that time. At the same time as GoPro's stellar performance, a post-90s individual named Liu Jingkang led a team to create a VR panoramic camera, which received angel investment from IDG. The story of Insta360 thus began. No one could have imagined that this team would, ten years later, stand shoulder to shoulder with the then-glorious GoPro and challenge the global king of action cameras. In terms of product design, Insta360 creatively solved many pain points of the smartphone era. For example, the Nano panoramic camera released in 2016 automatically connects to a dedicated control app by inserting the Nano into the iPhone's lightning port, achieving plug-and-shoot functionality, no post-processing, and one-click sharing to social networks. "The Nano did not use the Wi-Fi transmission route of most companies like Samsung and Ricoh at the time, but connected directly to the phone; combined with software optimization, we could split files into many parts, transmit a little, stitch a little, and play a little, instead of waiting for the entire image to be transmitted before processing and stitching, which greatly saved time," Liu Jingkang pointed out. "That's also why our company is called Insta360; 'Insta' means instant, capturing it immediately is our starting point." For instance, the wearable action camera Go series products liberate users' hands through bases, suction cups, and other accessories, positioning themselves for daily life recording; the ONE X series panoramic camera captures 360-degree scenes and uses algorithms to hide the selfie stick, catering to the selfie needs of some streaming influencers The product competitiveness has become the performance flywheel for Insta360, quickly driving its products to be sold in major markets around the world. In 2017, shortly after its establishment, Insta360's revenue was only 2% of GoPro's, but by 2024, its revenue of 5.6 billion yuan has placed it in the same tier as GoPro. Compared to Insta360's nearly 1 billion yuan annual net profit, GoPro's loss during the same period reached as high as 3.1 billion yuan, making it difficult for GoPro to be a competitor to Insta360 in terms of valuation. As of the market close on May 26 this year, GoPro's total market value was only 90 million USD, a decline of over 90% compared to its listing in 2014. ## The Drifting Competitor In just 10 years since its establishment, Insta360's ability to overtake the original leader GoPro in a curve is attributed to stronger product capabilities and also related to GoPro's strategic missteps. Originally, the original programs shot by GoPro were merely a window for product marketing, but Woodman attempted to transform GoPro into a software company and shift towards a UGC advertising marketing platform through user-generated video content. This vision is understandable, as a light-asset platform company corresponds to a much higher market valuation than the camera manufacturing industry, which struggles with cost calculations and profit margins. "The GoPro program is a powerful marketing tool, and we believe it has immense value as a growing media asset. We are investing to expand GoPro as a media entity and developing new revenue opportunities by increasing the production of GoPro original content while enhancing the aggregation and redistribution of 'best' user-generated content from customers," GoPro once described its vision. After focusing more energy on software platform development, GoPro found it challenging to cope with the rise of new Chinese imaging forces like DJI and Insta360. To compete with DJI, GoPro launched its first drone, Karma, in 2016. However, shortly after its launch, Karma encountered battery failure that led to explosion incidents, forcing GoPro to announce a recall. This incident severely damaged GoPro's brand reputation and served as a reminder for the newcomer Insta360. On Liu Jingkang's desk, there was once a GoPro drone, serving as a reminder to himself: "Not knowing what you don't know." "I believe GoPro must have conducted extensive testing during development. But the difficulty lies in the fact that even if you exhaust all methods and efforts, extensive does not mean complete. The completeness of the problem is only exposed when users test it in real scenarios. This falls under the category of dying from 'not knowing what you don't know,'" Liu Jingkang candidly stated. The allure of UGC and content ecosystems is indeed tempting, but how to refrain from certain actions while adhering to one's capability circle may become a question that needs to be considered behind the contrasting offensive and defensive dynamics between Insta360 and GoPro. ## The Boost from Short Videos The rise of short videos, which accompanies the growth phase, is the Beta that Insta360 enjoys from the era In 2017, the booming Douyin launched its international version project "TikTok," marking the beginning of an era where users record beautiful lives through short videos. In just one year, TikTok's downloads reached 660 million, surpassing Instagram to become the most popular app of the year in the Apple App Store. The high integration with smartphones, algorithm-based optimization presenting more perspectives, and convenient recording and editing have all become essential needs for the new generation of consumers. Insta360 has leveraged this wave by focusing on both hardware and software. For example, the latest flagship panoramic camera X5 has a maximum resolution of 8k, while its competitor GoPro Max only offers 5.6K. This means that the video clarity, which once became a hallmark of GoPro's product strength, has now fallen behind its Chinese counterpart. In terms of software services, Insta360's application comes with AI editing features that can recognize over 120 scenes, 150 objects, and 20 action categories, with an accuracy rate of over 90%. More importantly, the aforementioned AI editing service is available to users for free, while GoPro treats software services as one of its revenue paths. Users of GoPro's Quik application need to pay an annual fee to unlock diverse features such as automatic editing. The subscription fees for the Premium and Premium+ features are as high as $24.99/year and $99.99/year, respectively. In 2024, GoPro's revenue from subscription services reached 800 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10%. Even with revenue from software services, GoPro still cannot compete with Insta360. In the first quarter of 2025, Insta360's revenue reached 1.355 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of over 40%, while GoPro's revenue was only about 70% of the former. As Insta360's new product, the X5 panoramic camera, was sold out in New York, the launch date of the second-generation GoPro Max, originally scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024, has been postponed to 2025. ## The Soil of the Industry Chain It must be acknowledged that in the decade-long competition among global action camera leaders, the rise of Insta360 is inseparable from the deep accumulation of the consumer electronics industry chain in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. From 2022 to 2024, many of Insta360's top five suppliers are leading suppliers located in the Shenzhen area. For example, the lens module supplier is HONGJING-OPTECH (301479.SZ) located in Zhongshan, the accessory supplier is Jingxi Optics located in Dongguan, and the LCD supplier is Shenzhen Riri Jia Display Technology Co., Ltd In 2024, Insta360's gross margin reached 52.2%, exceeding GoPro by more than 18 percentage points. The significant difference lies in the fact that GoPro outsources most of its manufacturing processes to contract manufacturers in China, Thailand, and Vietnam, resulting in supply chain operational efficiency that may be significantly lower than that of Insta360. In March of this year, Semi Analysis pointed out in "America Is Missing The New Labor Economy" that each iteration of GoPro's drones takes several weeks—starting from design in California to sending details to manufacturers in China for production, then shipping back to the U.S., only to discover areas needing improvement. Shenzhen's comprehensive industrial chain layout in consumer electronics hardware has not only nurtured Insta360 but also propelled the development of more consumer electronics manufacturers like DJI. On the surface, this is a competition between two leading action camera companies. However, at a deeper level, it is actually a long-term race between the efficiency and depth of the industrial chains behind the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Silicon Valley. This innovative soil in Shenzhen is still cultivating more strong competitors in the smart imaging field. For example, DJI, which occupies over 60% of the global drone market, is also continuously making strides in the panoramic camera and action camera sectors. The DJI Pocket 3 targets life recording scenarios, attracting many self-media creators with its excellent beauty effects and video-to-live product features. Although this product was launched as early as October 2023, it is still in a state of high demand. Additionally, DJI's first panoramic camera, Osmo 360, is also in the works, which will directly compete with Insta360 and GoPro. Insta360 and DJI not only represent the commercial breakthroughs of domestic innovative enterprises venturing into the global market but also reflect the transformation of China's technological strength from "the world's factory" to "an innovation highland," and from "follower" to "leader." From experiencing the disruptive baptism of the smartphone industry to achieving a curve overtaking of the new ecological leader represented by GoPro, Insta360's growth and listing have not only revitalized the seemingly twilight-bound camera product category in consumer electronics but also provide an opportunity for the market in 2025 to reassess the strength and potential of Chinese cameras ### Related Stocks - [301479.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/301479.CN.md) - [688775.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/688775.CN.md) - [AAPL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPL.US.md) - [HUAWEI.NA](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HUAWEI.NA.md) - [01810.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/01810.HK.md) - [601138.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/601138.CN.md) - [BYTED.NA](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BYTED.NA.md) ## Related News & Research - [Insta360 Confirms Development of Two Mirrorless Cameras](https://longbridge.com/en/news/295746067.md) - [DJI sues rival Insta360 for alleged patent infringement ahead of new drone debut](https://longbridge.com/en/news/280157414.md) --- > **Disclaimer: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.**