The Secret to DJI's Market Leadership

DJI's success is based on being the first mover in the industry, achieving scale, and passing these benefits on to consumers through fairer prices and higher quality. Our relentless focus on research and development, combined with the belief that technology can solve most problems and that market competition improves the entire industry, has been our winning formula.

DJI leads the market because it created it

What many people may not know is that DJI, like thousands of other startups, was founded in a college dorm room. In 2006, its founder, then a student with a passion for remote-controlled flight, decided to start a company dedicated to opening up the hobby to more people by making aircraft easier to fly. Over the years, he and a small team of engineers studied RC aircraft control systems, developing and iterating on what would later become the DJI Phantom drone. DJI’s iterative design approach and focus on the end-user experience are at the core of its product development, ensuring ease of flight, safety, and reliability.

DJI’s industry leadership comes from this first-mover advantage and dedication to innovation. Contrary to critics’ claims of subsidies, DJI’s ability to offer competitively priced products in over 100 countries is due to mass production, supply chain integration, global price competition, and continued investment in research and development. In fact, of DJI’s 14,000 employees, 25 percent are dedicated to product development.

Companies around the world benefit from friendly macroeconomic practices at home

The United States, for example, offers tax credits for small businesses, hiring, research and development, manufacturing, and more. Many states and municipalities also offer specific incentives to local businesses. By the definition used by DJI critics, virtually any company could be considered “subsidized.”

As noted in a previous article, DJI critics often cite a media report as evidence of direct subsidies to the company. To be clear, DJI is majority owned by our founding shareholders. The remaining investors are private sector, with the exception of less than 6% and less than 1% voting rights held by several state-owned banks, a state-owned insurance company, and two municipal investment funds. These firms are the same as any institutional investor buying shares in a private company, regardless of location. The equivalent investment in the United States would be a state pension fund investing in U.S. technology companies. The investment is not a subsidy or a control and serves the same purpose as any other investor. No government entity or representative sits on DJI’s board of directors or has any role in its operations.

DJI Supports US Industry Growth

DJI has supported and will continue to support the development of the domestic drone industry in the United States for years. An economic impact report revealed that the use of DJI products generates over $116 billion in economic benefits and supports over 450,000 jobs in the United States. Software and hardware companies have built entire businesses around our products, while service providers, farmers, utilities and others depend on them. We are proud that they continue to choose us. In a recent survey by a drone service provider association, two-thirds of respondents said they would be out of business without access to our products.

Drones offer many benefits across industries and use cases, and we are still in the early stages of mass adoption. There is room in the market for all players, but the only way to grow the market is for everyone to compete to offer the best and most valuable products. The removal of DJI from the U.S. market will force operators, including public safety operators who use drones to save lives, to resort to alternative products that may not be as capable or reliable.

To strengthen the U.S. drone industry and improve safety and competitiveness, we call for:

• Establish industry-wide drone safety standards based on technology (not country of origin).
• Maintain the freedom of drone operators to choose the best platform for their operational needs.
• A free, open and competitive market, so that the market decides which products prosper.