In the process of UAV's development from consumer level to industry level, DJI's corporate strategic positioning has experienced the evolution of "product → platform → service". This change is not only because the demand for products in the UAV market is becoming more and more complicated, but also because DJI has more and more understanding and participation in all walks of life in the process of enterprise growth.
The picture is from Canva.
The era of unmanned aerial vehicles with power and height
UAV is not a new concept in recent ten years. It was first used in the military field, and then slowly developed into the civilian field. After two entrepreneurial waves of 20 12-20 16 and 20 16, nowadays, with the efforts of many drone companies, drones are blooming everywhere in the civilian field.
Since DJI released the first UAV product "Genie" in 20 12, the domestic UAV market has gone through two distinct periods: consumption stage and industrial stage. In the first stage, technology and products are the center of competition, and DJI is undoubtedly the biggest winner, occupying more than 70% of the global market share of consumer drones. During this period, consumers are most concerned about the performance of drones, but for enterprises and brands, this also means that consumers are not sticky.
In the second stage, with the continuous exploration of UAV practitioners and the help of capital, UAV technology gradually popularized, market competition began to differentiate, and UAVs found a foothold in new usage scenarios. With the success of UAV commercialization and the rapid formation and maturity of China's UAV industrial chain, all walks of life are expecting new possibilities brought by UAVs. During this period, although technology and products are still carriers to realize different scenarios, with the deepening of application, the focus of competition has begun to change.
For most industries and individuals, the era of "power and height" brought by drones is to add a "Z axis" full of infinite imagination on the ground x/y axis. Prior to this, although airplanes had become popular, the cost was still high. Moreover, for the specific situations faced by many industries, it is unthinkable to use aircraft for operations, because the aircraft is too difficult to operate and the fuselage is too huge, but the characteristics of drones such as portability, simplicity, easy operation and low cost have changed everything.
However, as a new economic carrier, UAV actually faces many problems. For DJI, technical advantages can ensure the advantages of products in terms of experience and performance, but how to ensure the use effect and efficiency in different industry applications is still a difficult problem. For other drone companies, technology has no advantage. If you want to get a share in the shadow of DJI, you need to find another way to find room for growth outside the product.
As Wang Tao, the founder of DJI, said, "The drone market is a niche market after all and will never become a market with a large number of users." Because there is a visible limit to the growth of users, UAV enterprises must dig deep into value-added services, especially industrial applications, on the basis of existing products, which is the inevitable trend of UAV enterprises' development.
Technical competition under market game
In the early consumer drone market, due to the relatively basic market form and unified consumer demand, a technology-driven market competition model was formed. In short, in the competition in this field, whoever has strong technology and good products will win the favor of consumers; On the contrary, consumers can easily lose to their rivals.
Undoubtedly, in the field of civil drones, DJI leads the audience through its technical advantages and market grasp. In 20 17, DJI had a research and development team of 1500 people, and there were about 14000 enterprises at the peak; By the end of 2020, DJI had applied for 5,577 invention patents and utility model patents in China. With the blowout of core technology, during this period, DJI products also ushered in explosive growth and quickly occupied the market.
In terms of technology, relying on technological advantages, DJI has taken the initiative in both patent litigation and competition on the same stage in the face of the competition caused by the entry of many manufacturers into the consumer drone market. Just as Internet startups can't get around Alibaba and Tencent, drone startups can't get around DJI. The actual results of previous drone lawsuits and price wars are self-evident.
In terms of market, DJI's high sensitivity to products and markets and its first-Mover advantage make it have an overwhelming advantage over later challengers. Take zero-degree intelligent control as an example. In May of 20 16, with the support of Qualcomm, Zero Intelligence launched a small unmanned aerial vehicle "DOBBY" with a highly integrated chip. This entry-level drone that can be put into a pocket avoids the "Phantom" series of drones that DJI dominated at that time. In the idea of zero-degree intelligent control, DOBBY can become the millet in drones, relying on low prices to lower the entry threshold for consumers. Therefore, as soon as DOBBY was put on the shelves, the sales volume quickly exceeded 65,438+10,000.
But in September of the same year, DJI launched the "Royal Mavic" series. Unlike the Phantom series, like DOBBY, Royal Mavic also takes a light route. The unmanned fuselage can be folded, with a weight of 734g and a battery life of 27 minutes. However, the zero-degree intelligent control ignores the non-essential commodity factors of drones: although the Royal Mavic is large in size and high in price, it performs much better in battery life, image transmission and flight control. In the eyes of consumers in need, the limited portability advantage cannot offset the backward part of performance.
DJI's ability to quickly iterate products based on technology is unparalleled in the market. Zero Intelligence soon lost in the competition with DJI, because the capital chain was broken, and its second-generation products were stillborn, so it had to face the dilemma of layoffs and financing. Now Zero Intelligent Control has been transformed into an industrial-grade UAV, focusing on security, mapping, detection and logistics solutions. By the way, it's a part-time drone formation flight show. At present, searching Dobby on Taobao in JD.COM can only find a bunch of snacks.
In addition to zero-degree intelligent control, domestic drone manufacturers such as Yihang, Daotong Intelligent and Feifei have quickly found a way out after just facing DJI; Not only domestic UAV manufacturers, but also foreign manufacturers, such as 3D Robotics Solo, have withdrawn from the consumer UAV market because of their "inferior technology" in the competition with DJI Elves. In the shadow of DJI, consumer drone manufacturers have become "retired action art".
Generally speaking, DJI can occupy a dominant position in the consumer-grade UAV market, mainly because it can rely on its own technological advantages to quickly launch corresponding competing products in the face of challenges and win commercial victory by better solving the pain points.
Predicament and outlet
However, the "smooth sailing" of the consumer drone market does not mean that DJI can sit back and relax.
First of all, the ceiling of consumer drones is low, which is an endogenous problem in the market and cannot be solved. 20 16 Wang Tao realized that consumer drones are a small market with only tens of billions of space. According to the data of Huajing Industry Research Institute, the market size of consumer-grade UAVs in China is 28.3 billion yuan in 20 19, and 31500 million yuan in 2020, which means that even if DJI eats up all the market share, its size and enterprise scale will eventually be limited.
The second is the impact of the epidemic. DJI relies heavily on offline channels and overseas markets. According to the data disclosed online, about 80% of its sales come from offline; The sales ratio of overseas market and domestic market is about 8: 2. Therefore, during the epidemic, DJI has to face the difficulties of tight cargo supply and soaring freight costs, as well as the risks of Sino-US trade friction and overseas suppliers' supply interruption.
Finally, in the process of rapid expansion, DJI's own structure is bloated, management is chaotic and inefficient, and internal management and team building problems need to be solved urgently. In 20 18, DJI exposed a large-scale supply chain corruption case, "conservatively estimated that the loss exceeded 10 billion yuan", and hundreds of people involved were under investigation. Under various influences, DJI will streamline its structure in 2020, involving all departments, and the corporate marketing and sales team of Shenzhen headquarters will be reduced from 180 to 60 people.
Nowadays, DJI is getting closer and closer to the ceiling of consumer drones, and there are also various problems inside. At this time, it is most important to transform and find new growth space.
According to the data of China Research Network, in 20 19, the market size of China's industrial drones reached1565438+79 million yuan, but it is predicted that by 2024, the market size of industrial drones will reach about150 billion yuan, including 31800 million yuan for agricultural and forestry plant protection and 2024 for police security and electricity. It can be said that in addition to consumer drones, industrial drones also have their own world.
That's true. Those drone companies that have lost in the consumer market have basically entered the industry-level market. 20 16, Feifei released P20 agricultural drone; 20 17 French manufacturer Parrot turned to professional application; In 20 18, Yihang cooperated with Yonghui Super Species and began to try "smart retail+drone distribution". According to the network data, in 20021year, the financing funds of the UAV industry in China exceeded 10 billion, and there were more than 20 enterprises with financing of over 10 million, and more than10 enterprises with financing of over 100 million.
Undoubtedly, the foothold of DJI transformation lies in the industrial drone market, but the business logic of the industrial drone market is completely different from that of the consumer market. In short, the industrial drone market brings more imagination to the drone industry, but also brings more uncertainty. For DJI, the industrial drone market has both opportunities and variables.
Can industrial drones still be eaten by the whole family?
The goal of DJI used to be flying and flying images, and it really gained a lot. However, since 20 16, DJI has paid more and more attention to business departments, focused on expanding the civilian market, developed more sub-categories, and began to shift its focus from technology to product experience. The transformation of DJI to the industry level is not a sudden and comprehensive action and decision, but the result of more than ten years of commercial operation, driven by market competition and technological development.
On the one hand, the market is changing. The application of drones is constantly expanding, and each application scenario is deepening. The supervision of drones is also constantly improving, and the industrial structure is constantly being optimized. It can be said that it is not purely technical factors that gave birth to the industrial-grade UAV market, but also the result of different enterprises seeking differentiated competition outside DJI.
On the other hand, enterprises are also changing. With the upgrading of unmanned technology and the efforts of drone practitioners, drones have found a foothold in new scenarios, such as agriculture, electricity, security, logistics and smart cities ... So, for the drone industry, the only constant is "change" itself. Being able to adapt to changes and even lead the trend is the core competitiveness of drone companies.
Nowadays, DJI has gone further and further in the field of product-based value-added services, and professional film and television solutions are particularly eye-catching. Thanks to the technological progress in the platform and digitalization of UAV for many years and the data accumulation in specific applications, DJI has been able to realize the monopoly closed loop of UAV platform, modular components and related value-added services in some links, providing customers with personalized, integrated and intelligent high-quality service experience, and establishing strategic partnerships with these industry giants to provide them with long-term technical support.
At this stage, the attributes of "flight and power" of the UAV itself gradually weaken, not that flight is no longer important, but that different industries have different needs for UAVs. Standardized products that were unfavorable in the consumer drone market in the past have been difficult to adapt to this environment. Therefore, how to provide personalized services to meet the different needs of different industries has become the focus of competition in the industry-level UAV market.
As the focus of competition in the industry-level market has shifted to a certain extent beyond products, the influencing factors of technical factors have also decreased accordingly. Although DJI still has advantages at this time, it is no longer a crushing bureau like the consumer market. Because the market demand at the industry level is complex enough, it takes time and energy to understand the industry and data to better provide value-added services. This gap period is actually an opportunity for other drone companies.
Therefore, the industrial drone market is not only a breakthrough for DJI ceiling, but also a breakthrough for other drone companies to break through the "DJI ceiling". But having said that, DJI will not let go of any piece of meat easily. The current civil drone market can be compared to the sea. DJI is the only shark. Other drone companies need to grab the meat that has been bitten in their mouths before the arrival of sharks.