For most people, DJI is synonymous with drones.

When the brand is mentioned, the first associations that spring to mind are aerial photography, extreme sports, and breathtaking aerial vistas — this Chinese tech giant has conquered the global market with its cutting-edge flight technology.

However, DJI's influence extends far beyond the realm of drones.

【The Imaging Empire Can No Longer Remain Hidden】

In 2002, a surfing enthusiast in California, USA, had a sudden epiphany: he wanted to capture his own thrilling actions but couldn't find a suitable camera.

So, he took matters into his own hands and developed one, eventually launching the world's first action camera and founding a company named GoPro.

For the next two decades, GoPro enjoyed a near-monopoly in the global action camera market.

That was until 2019, when DJI made its entrance. That year, DJI launched the Osmo Action series, officially stepping into the action camera arena.

Six years on, DJI has transformed from a challenger to a leader, commanding a 66% global market share. Its trio of products — the Osmo Action 5 Pro, Osmo Nano, and others — dominate the top three spots on JD.com's action camera bestseller list, establishing an absolute dominance.

Surprised? There's more to come!

Panoramic cameras were once the exclusive domain of Insta360.

This Chinese startup successfully transformed panoramic cameras — previously explored by Japan's Ricoh and South Korea's Samsung — from niche gadgets into a thriving industry, leading the sector for the past decade.

However, DJI recently disrupted this landscape.

In July 2025, DJI unveiled its first panoramic camera, the Osmo 360, and within just three months, it rapidly captured 43% of the global market share.

On Chinese e-commerce platforms, the Osmo 360 topped the bestseller list with a 49% share.

This data and achievement, sourced from the authoritative management consulting firm Jiuqian Consulting, directly shattered Insta360's decade-long monopoly.

But DJI didn't stop there; it also created a new product category.

Since launching the first-generation Osmo Pocket in 2017, DJI has successfully popularized gimbal cameras in the consumer market.

From action cameras and panoramic cameras to gimbal cameras... these products may seem like distinct categories from drones, but why has DJI quickly dominated the market?

Peeling back the layers, the core lies in imaging.

Whether it's action cameras, panoramic cameras, or drones, despite their different forms and applications, they all serve the same ultimate purpose:

To enable humans to record the world more freely, authentically, and comprehensively.

Imaging is the origin and the destination of it all.

For DJI, this merely shifted from capturing images in flight to capturing them in hands — using the same technological suite to achieve full coverage from sky to ground.

In this sense, DJI hasn't crossed boundaries; it has simply extended its capabilities into new scenarios along its proven technological curve.

With continuous expansion, today's DJI is no longer just a drone company but has transformed into a full-scenario imaging technology platform company.

A low-key (low-profile) imaging empire can no longer remain hidden.

【Users Are the Driving Force Behind the Scenes】

DJI's success is no accident.

Venturing into imaging wasn't a sudden whim but part of DJI's inherent DNA.

As early as 2006, shortly after its founding, while working on controller sensors, DJI began accumulating imaging algorithms and underlying technologies.

Over a decade of accumulation ultimately enabled DJI to build a vast technological pool in professional imaging, particularly in stabilization, sensors, and other areas.

However, at that time, DJI's focus remained primarily on professional-grade drone aerial photography.

Until the rise of the short-video era, when filming was no longer exclusive to professionals and extreme sports enthusiasts. More and more ordinary people hoped to:

Record their lives anytime, anywhere, and share them on social platforms.

This nationwide trend made DJI realize the enormous market potential of handheld imaging devices.

However, smartphones at the time, while adequate for photography, offered poor video stabilization and shock resistance. Professional cameras were bulky, heavy, and expensive.

Numerous user pain points prompted DJI to enter the market, leading to the birth of the OSMO brand.

OSMO marked DJI's transition from sky to ground. Its first product, the handheld gimbal camera, achieved great success with its exceptional stability and high-quality imaging.

The subsequent Osmo Pocket pioneered a new category of pocket gimbal cameras, becoming a phenomenal product often dubbed the "electronic Moutai" (a reference to its premium status and high demand in China).

The real challenge lay in action cameras.

In this field, U.S.-based GoPro was the undisputed leader. However, its success inertia made it slow to respond to changing user demands, remaining fixated on the professional market.

DJI seized the opportunity and launched its first action camera, the Osmo Action, in 2019.

With its front color screen and advanced stabilization algorithms, it addressed core user pain points in filming scenarios, successfully opening a market niche.

From then on, DJI continuously pondered: What kind of action camera do ordinary users truly need?

Centered on this question, DJI relentlessly dug deeper:

How to achieve higher image quality, lower power consumption, and longer battery life in a more compact form? How to lower the usage barrier, enabling seamless switching between devices and ecosystems?

Products continuously iterated and innovated through these processes.

The Osmo Action 2 abandoned tradition, adopting a magnetic snap-on architecture for instant host-accessory swapping, greatly expanding action cameras' application scenarios and playability.

Despite encountering setbacks along the way, DJI persisted in innovating around user pain points until the Osmo Action 4 matched GoPro's market share.

Two years later, the Osmo Action 5 Pro iterated again, surpassing GoPro with its large memory, ultra-long battery life, high dynamic range, and exceptional low-light performance, claiming the title of the world's leading action camera.

Panoramic cameras further showcased DJI's innovation around user pain points.

Before DJI, panoramic cameras were plagued by the impossibility triangle of image quality, size, and battery life, largely due to the use of smartphone sensors.

To solve this, DJI boldly broke free from industry stagnation, developing a square sensor designed specifically for panoramic imaging.

Although customizing this chip came at a high cost, it significantly optimized the panoramic camera's size, weight, and power consumption.

With DJI's first panoramic camera, the Osmo 360, users no longer had to sacrifice flagship image quality and ultra-long battery life for extreme portability.

By addressing user pain points, DJI ultimately won the market, rewriting the panoramic camera landscape in just three months.

【The Ecosystem Is the Ultimate Goal】

From drones to gimbal cameras, and then to action cameras and panoramic cameras, DJI has achieved overwhelming success in nearly every market it enters.

Amidst the triumphs, doubts also emerged in the market.

Some claimed DJI shifted to imaging due to hitting a ceiling in its drone business. This view overlooks the logic behind DJI's expansion:

Technological synergies.

In fact, long before DJI ventured into action cameras or even gimbal cameras, its labs already housed numerous imaging technologies.

These were accumulated during the drone era.

Thus, when the short-video era arrived, its transition from sky to ground became natural — not only driven by market demand but also enabled by its existing capabilities.

For example, motion stabilization.

For GoPro and Insta360, this was a new challenge. For DJI, it was familiar territory, as drone stabilization is far more demanding than handheld devices.

To address this, DJI developed integrated hardware-software capabilities, including three-axis gimbals.

This stabilization technology, honed in the drone field, was later applied to ground-based handheld filming scenarios, becoming a competitive advantage for DJI's handheld imaging devices.

Another example is color science.

Drone imagery is often captured in high-dynamic, complex lighting environments, prompting DJI to explore color early on.

From deep involvement with large-size sensors to software algorithm rendering, DJI established a more complete and professional color system than its competitors.

This accumulation empowered DJI to challenge industry limits and customize a new sensor for the Osmo 360.

Moreover, years of drone expertise equipped DJI with precision manufacturing processes for ultra-compact products and structural stacking design capabilities to reduce volume.

Additionally, DJI's extensive audio technology accumulation enabled it to offer integrated sound-and-image professional creation experiences, more immersive than competitors.

To outsiders, DJI seems to be launching a dazzling array of single-function products at a frenetic pace. However, in essence:

This is a technological system being reused across different product categories along the core imaging track, ultimately forming a complete imaging ecosystem.

This imaging ecosystem may not have been DJI's deliberate design initially, but it offers users an unprecedented ultimate experience.

During outdoor shoots, users may need different devices for various scenarios.

However, switching between devices from different brands often leads to hassles, especially color style discrepancies requiring extensive post-production matching and correction.

With DJI's all-in-one Osmo ecosystem, these issues vanish.

It provides a unified 10-bit D-LogM color science, ensuring consistency across multiple devices for streamlined post-production color management and grading.

Meanwhile, its rich magnetic snap-on accessory lineup enables DJI products to expand into more filming forms.

Crucially, DJI offers a unified software platform, the DJI Mimo App, creating a seamless, efficient full-link closed loop (closed loop) from shooting control and Material Management (material management) to professional editing.

Users can simultaneously control action cameras and panoramic cameras via the App and complete content creation in one stop, truly achieving creative freedom.

In this sense, DJI's foray into panoramic cameras was not a random move but an inevitable outcome driven by user scenarios and ecosystem closure.

With DJI completing another consumer imaging puzzle piece and forming a closed loop of technology, supply chain, and ecosystem, it transcends being merely a hardware company to become:

An imaging technology platform serving global users.

Over the past decade, DJI has created remarkable miracles in the drone field. Over the next decade, having completed its ecosystem closure, it is opening a new battlefield:

Drones are just the starting point; imaging is the future.

Disclaimer

The content involving listed companies in this article is based on the author's personal analysis and judgment of information publicly disclosed by the companies in accordance with their legal obligations (including but not limited to interim announcements, periodic reports, and official interaction platforms). The information or opinions herein do not constitute any investment or other commercial advice. Shizhi Guancha (Market Cap Observer) assumes no responsibility for any actions taken based on this article.

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