These days, aerial photography with a drone has become almost as commonplace as using a laptop or smartphone, but even some 15 years ago it was an absolutely undeveloped field, in which there were only very expensive and difficult to manage professional devices, designed for specific tests. But exactly 15 years ago, in 2006, an unknown Chinese developer Frank Wang Tao, obsessed with the idea of an ideal drone, thanks to the support of like-minded people, creates his own company DJI (SZ Dajiang Innovation Technology Co., Ltd.) – now a world famous manufacturer of high-quality video equipment, multicopters and other related devices. The development of this company is comparable to a mountain river – having slowly started its journey, it has been increasing its strength and power exponentially with each turn, and now by 2021 it occupies the undisputed leading position in the drone market.
How it all began
The history of the company is inseparable from the history of its founder. Frank Wang Tao was born in 1980 in the Chinese city – Hangzhou. Since childhood, he was fond of aeromodelling, it was his hobby, which he could do all day and night long, so that soon ordinary studies went by the wayside for him. That is why attempts to become a student of one of the prestigious American technological universities failed, and Wang Tao entered the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which ultimately became a life-changing turn for him. Already in his senior year of studies, Frank was passionate about creating a prototype drone control system and, after many sleepless nights, demonstrated it to his professor Li Zexiang, who was so impressed with the student’s work that he received a special grant to continue his work. Later, Professor Li became an investor in DJI, and today owns 10% of the company’s shares and is on the board of directors.
Until 2006, Wang Tao lived in a university dormitory, creating his first control systems, then, in the company of his fellow students-partners, he moved to Shenzhen, where DJI was founded with the rest of the funds from Wang Tao’s grant. The cost of the first drones was about $ 6,000 apiece, the buyers were companies that conducted experiments with drones. The proceeds were barely enough to pay salaries to employees and continue development, and even significant financial injections were required, which at various times were provided by Frank’s family friend Liu Di, who today owns a 16% stake in the company, and Swift Jiase, who sold his own apartment for the sake of his best friend and has invested all the funds in the company and is considered to be Wang Tao’s confidant. The precarious position of DJI was also due to the difficult nature of the founder, who, being an implacable perfectionist, brought his subordinates to the point of leaving, as a result of which, during the first two years of existence, almost the entire initial staff of the company was replaced.
Despite all the difficulties, Frank Wang Tao had the right environment, thanks to which the company continued to exist and develop, and soon sales began to go abroad. Visiting international forums inspired the founder to develop fundamentally new products, he sought to create an easy-to-use autopilot, which aroused the interest of an increasing number of such forums. In 2011, at one of them, Frank met Colin Gwynn, an equally passionate fan of model aircraft who had his own start-up and sought to combine this area with cinema. At this time, DJI was just working on a gimbal to stabilize shooting, which became a fixed idea for two enthusiasts. In the same 2011, the company achieved its goal of creating a surprisingly light and cheap product – the cost was reduced to less than $1,000. At the same time, Gwynn became a 48% shareholder of the company and its ambassador to the west, setting up DJI North America in Texas to attract new customers.
2012-2013 was marked by the assembly of all the unique developments of the company together and the release of the first Phantom quadcopter, which is an incredibly smart, but easy to fly, ready to go out of the box and affordable drone. He literally blew up the market, turning the company into a world famous brand, which was also facilitated by the right diversification policy: quadrocopters were sold equally in key markets in Europe, Asia and America (30% of sales each), as well as in Africa and Latin America. The company’s revenue for 2013 jumped to $130 million. In the same year, the relationship between Frank Van Tao and Colin Gwynn, which systematically deteriorated due to a different approach to sales, completely disappeared, reaching litigation. In the end, Colin Gwynn, having received compensation, along with other former DJI employees, got a job at a competitor’s company – 3D Robotics, where he continues to work to this day.
The undisputed leader
Further development of the company DJI took place at an incredible pace. In the wake of Phantom’s success, the Phantom 2 and Phantom 2 Vision were released in the same 2013, offering consumers the latest implementations at that time. Along with quadrocopters, the company does not forget about its other developments, the S800, F330, F550 platforms, Zenmuse gimbals and other products go on sale. In 2014, 400,000 Phantom series quadcopters were sold using the revolutionary Lightbridge data transmission technology, the Ronin professional stabilizers, the S900 and S1000 platforms are born, and the Inspire1 convertible quadcopters occupy their niche, which leads to 500 million in revenue per year. In 2015, aerial fans enjoyed the release of the Phantom 3 (Professional, Advanced and Standard), the Zenmuse X5 and X5 RAW gimbals, and professional filmmakers with the Ronin-M stabilizer and other new products.
In 2015, DJI’s work on its own unique developments without trying to transform existing solutions leads to the fact that its turnover is a fantastic figure – $ 1 billion, the staff is almost 3,000 employees working around the world, and the company itself is valued at $ 10 billion. . According to the results of marketing research, the brainchild of Wang Tao occupies 70% of the global drone market. Due to the high pace of development of the quadcopter market, as well as the brand’s approach to the “boxed” solution and minimalist style, it is often called the “Apple among drones”.
Pursuing the dream of turning DJI into a global technology brand that will restore China’s reputation as a manufacturer of high-quality products and stand among the giants of global commerce, Frank Wang Tao continues to actively develop new technologies and solutions, resulting in the birth of Phantom in March 2016 4, included in the opinion of authoritative publications in the top 10 “best drones”. Among the competitors, drones from Shenzhen Zero UAV Tech.Co., LTD (Zero), 3D Robotics (where Colin Gwynn currently works), Horizon Hobby LLC, Parrot, Yuneec, Microdrones. It is worth noting that this year the first lawsuit related to patent infringement took place: DJI sued Yuneec, which released its new model.
In less than a few months, the Mavic handheld foldable drone was introduced in September, incorporating all the latest aerial photography solutions into an amazingly compact size. It seems that very soon drones will become not only affordable and controllable, but also as familiar an attribute of everyday life as a phone, and DJI is the absolute leader in this field today, which, according to all forecasts, will remain so at least for a while. for several years. This is confirmed by the fact that in 2015 DJI acquired a stake in the well-known European manufacturer of filming equipment – Hasselblad. The strategic partnership of these companies, in their own words, will allow them to show and use their best sides.
Useful anti-advertising
The impetus for the development of technologies in the field of quadcopters is not only the company’s own ideas, but also negative experience. As you know, the rapid development of airbags has made people think about the safety and privacy of the people around them, since the use of these devices is still almost not authorized in any way. In the history of DJI, there are known cases of drones violating personal and, in principle, prohibited space. One of them happened in the United States, when an American intelligence officer in Washington, being in a state of intoxication, launched his friend’s drone and, having lost it in the dark, found it only in the morning on the White House lawn. This event instantly hit the front pages of newspapers, and DJI attracted the attention of the whole world. The second well-known case occurred in Japan – a drone with samples of radioactive waste from Fukushima-1 in the hands of an inexperienced environmentalist flew right onto the roof of the office of the Japanese prime minister. There are also reports of drones being used to deliver illegal substances and even weapons that would make any large and well-known manufacturer shudder in horror. However, Wang Tao remains absolutely calm and methodically solves these problems. To date, each of its drones has built-in software that controls the flight zones, thanks to which the drones are not able to fly near strategic objects such as airfields and other “forbidden zones”, in particular, the drone will not be able to approach the residence of the US President less than 15, 5 miles.
Outstanding present and promising future
Today DJI is a number of production areas in which the company has practically no analogues:
- world famous quadcopters (Phantom and Mavic) for the mass consumer and professional multicopters (Inspire, Spreading Wings);
- various controllers for unmanned aerial vehicles (A2, Naza, and others);
- filming equipment for stabilization and professional cinematography (Osmo, Ronin);
- platforms that are actually drone designers – Guidance, Matrice 100.
Already today, DJI products have found application in a variety of fields, such as television, agriculture, journalism, blogging, construction and cartography. Once on the list of the most high-tech products, drones have become so easy to use that they have become a household appliance available to everyone. It is difficult to overestimate the benefits that drones will be able to bring in the near future, and in what areas they will still find application, DJI every year makes all fans of flying cameras wait with bated breath for the implementation of new products, and then only be surprised at new opportunities that seemed to become a reality only in distant future. No wonder the company’s slogan: The Future of Possible
One cannot fail to note such an important application of the company’s products as serving “higher goals”. Drones are used to facilitate the work of humanitarian services in an emergency, help to collect more complete and reliable information about the current situation, while maintaining a safe distance, make more informed decisions cheaper and more efficiently than using traditional methods.
Similarly, quadcopters allow environmentalists, scientists and researchers to see things from the air that they can’t otherwise see, or discover things they would never see from the ground. The company also supports educational programs by taking care of continuous research and establishing a science center in Science Park Hong Kong in 2015. Employees work in divisions around the world: China, USA, Europe, Japan, Korea – they are full of energy and ideas, because their average age is only 26 years.
Waiting for the impossible
The history of the emergence and development of DJI is like a fairy tale: a dreamer student spends sleepless nights developing what he loves most, and his creation was eventually appreciated and loved by the whole world. The perfectionism and pickiness of founder Frank Wang Tao towards his product makes us believe that he will not stop there, and we will only watch in amazement as the future becomes our daily reality. Frank and his company DJI are already inscribed in history as another technological revolution that has changed and is still changing our lives, we have witnessed these events and have the right to expect new exciting discoveries. Who knows what else the work of a brilliant developer will lead to?
