DJI and Insta360: The Boundless Battle for the Gateway to Imaging

In the latter half of the 20th century, a classic rivalry in industrial history unfolded on the shores of Tokyo Bay.

Canon and Nikon, once business partners, became fierce competitors after catching up in their technologies, engaging in a life-or-death battle for over half a century. It was precisely this intense hometown rivalry that pushed both companies through waves of technological iteration, ultimately raising Japan’s imaging industry to global leadership.

This duel between Canon and Nikon was essentially a struggle for the voice of imaging in an era dominated by optical technology.

With the widespread adoption of smartphones, the tides of portability and computational photography have pushed former optical giants into a twilight of stagnant growth. The marginal gains from perfecting traditional lens precision are rapidly diminishing. However, this also gave birth to products such as gimbals and portable handheld imaging devices.

During this chilly winter where the traditional imaging market wanes, DJI and Insta360, new disruptors, have gained tickets to the next era.

DJI sharply identified physical “blind spots” and niche scenarios unreachable by smartphone cameras, using precise flight control technology to bring cameras to the skies and offer users more perspectives of the world. Insta360 catered to fragmented needs for extreme sports and personal documentation with panoramic stitching and ultra-simple software post-processing.

But history’s sense of fate lies precisely in its cycles.

As DJI’s "God’s perspective" became downwardly compatible, and Insta360’s "panoramic ecosystem" grew upward, the segmented blue ocean eventually merged into a single deep-water zone. The two Chinese imaging players, in pursuit of more market share, inevitably collided.

The flames of war once ignited by Tokyo Bay for imaging dominance have been rekindled on the shores of Shenzhen Bay today.

The battle between drone giant DJI and leading panoramic camera maker Insta360 has long surpassed the realm of isolated product skirmishes, becoming a full-blown war across the skies and ground, supply chain and courts, dealer storefronts and social media.

Product lines bumping head-on are just the obvious arena; behind the scenes, dozens of suppliers face exclusive pressure, a Changsha dealer’s signboard was removed overnight after a million-yuan renovation, multiple patent disputes were formally accepted by the Shenzhen Intermediate Court, and exchanges between founders and companies have grown increasingly sharp.

As warfare spreads across products, prices, channels, supply chains, patents, and public opinion, the buffer zone between DJI and Insta360 is vanishing.

This is a boundaryless battle for the imaging gateway.

Rare Statement

After ten years of silence, DJI founder Frank Wang made a rare break and accepted an external interview.

While discussing his entrepreneurial journey and attempting to refresh his personal and corporate image, the tech boss made rare comments about his competitor, comparing Insta360 founder Liu Jingkang to “Red Boy”.

Behind this seemingly playful remark lies escalating warfare between two consumer tech giants both grown out of Shenzhen’s supply chain.

Over the past year, DJI and Insta360 have invaded each other's core territories, with the battle lines extending from drones to panoramic and action cameras.

The disputes continue.

On April 16, DJI officially released the new Pocket 4, while Insta360 also plans to launch a Pocket-type product "Luna" in the first half of this year.

Even more intense is the quickly escalating conflict across supply chain and patent lawsuits as product lines overlap.

On March 23, 2026, DJI formally sued Insta360 in the Shenzhen Intermediate Court regarding six patent disputes; the court has officially filed the case.

DJI claimed in the suit that the patents in question focus on key technologies in drone flight control, structural design, and image processing, invented by former core R&D personnel within a year after leaving DJI, closely related to their work at DJI, and should be considered employment inventions under the Patent Law.

Sources told the media that, among the six disputed patents, two have key details. In Insta360’s Chinese application, some inventors are listed as “request not to publish name,” but in the corresponding PCT international application, their real names are shown, and they are former DJI R&D employees.

Liu Jingkang responded on social media, stating that the sole patent possibly involved in flight control is a technology enabling one-click “suicide flight” for drones, an idea he says originated from himself, adding, “If DJI wants this feature, I can give it to you.”

Regarding hiding inventors, Liu Jingkang explained it was to delay exposing the tech team’s names and avoid being targeted by headhunters, not to evade patent attribution.

Looking back at DJI’s explosive past decade, the drone hegemon has never lacked challengers, but Insta360 is one of the few that has sparked DJI’s “desire to win”.

Brutal Elimination

Insta360 is not DJI’s first challenger.

Many international giants, most famously GoPro, tried to stake a claim early on. A decade ago, GoPro, then the leading action camera brand, launched the Karma drone to much fanfare, only to recall it globally two weeks later due to power faults, ultimately withdrawing from the market after layoffs in 2018.

In the same period, open-source champion 3DR, highly favored by Silicon Valley investors, saw its inventory soar over 100,000 units due to product experience failures, and made a hasty pivot.

3DR’s former Chief Revenue Officer Colin Guinn admitted: “Silicon Valley's software-centric companies can hardly compete with the strong vertical integration and manufacturing capacities of Chinese firms.”

Domestic challengers fared no better.

In 2016, Xiaomi tried to grab the drone market with a low price of 2,999 yuan, but after experiencing launch “flyaway” accidents and poor sales, dissolved the team.

The same year, Yuneec, armed with a massive Intel investment, was sued by DJI for patent infringement as it prepared to launch the Typhoon H drone in the US.

Within less than a year, Yuneec was chased by suppliers for debts and ultimately laid off staff.

Virtually all players who tried to challenge DJI in recent years have been wiped out.

The main reasons for failure can be summarized in three points:

Immature product technology led to frequent crashes; new entrants lacked profitable main businesses and couldn’t sustain a prolonged battle; even large firms had no patience to keep developing after failures.

For years, the only companies capable of resisting DJI’s offensive were "small but beautiful".

XAG, currently sprinting toward a Hong Kong IPO, focuses on the agricultural protection track and generated 1.166 billion yuan in revenue in 2025; Zerotech’s drones are lightweight and focus on overseas markets, with nearly 1 billion yuan in revenue in 2025.

These companies either chose different tracks or different markets, never clashing head-on with DJI in the consumer drone battlefield.

“Basically everyone’s strategy is to avoid the sharp edge and seek differentiated markets,” said one industry insider.

But Insta360 has totally stepped outside DJI’s familiar "prey" model.

Unlike startups raising funds via PPTs and rushing headlong into DJI’s core drone battleground, Insta360’s entry has shown differentiated features.

Starting with panoramic and action cameras, Insta360 quietly built a large young user base and substantial revenue without triggering DJI’s core defense mechanisms early on.

Revenue soared from 159 million yuan in 2017 to 9.858 billion yuan in 2025, up 76.85% year-on-year. Parent net profit reached 964 million yuan in 2025.

As of 2025, Insta360 has held the top global market share in panoramic cameras for eight consecutive years.

In some ways, Insta360 has followed GoPro’s path, but with much higher product iteration efficiency and manufacturing capability thanks to Shenzhen's agile supply chain.

In 2025, Insta360 was successfully listed on the STAR Market, becoming the "first panoramic camera stock in China".

This leap in capital capability undoubtedly gave Insta360 the confidence to enter the drone track.

More fundamentally, as time passes, the underlying drone hardware supply chain is becoming more mature.

Take Haoying Technology, sprinting toward the STAR Market, as an example: this company, focused on drone power systems, has turned complex powertrains into standard outsourced components. Even Jimu Robotics, just two years old, can launch drone products thanks to mature suppliers.

So the battle can no longer be won by simple patent suppression or supply chain scale.

Direct Clash

As DJI and Insta360 face off in court and the public sphere, the hottest topic is: who fired the first shot?

In reality, breaking down their product lines reveals that this battle has no clear boundary—ground “melee” has quietly begun.

DJI’s ground imaging portfolio covers action cameras (Action series), pocket cameras (Pocket series), etc. No matter what ground imaging product Insta360 launches, it cannot avoid DJI’s range.

Insta360 launched its first action camera Ace in 2023; similar in scenario to DJI’s Action 4, its biggest difference is Ace’s focus on "shoot first, crop later" and panoramic freedom with a single lens.

While the DJI Pocket and Insta360 Go series differ in form, they essentially compete for the same mass-market audience for everyday life recording.

Highlighting the absolute core areas of the sky and panorama happened simultaneously in the summer of 2025.

On July 23, 2025, Insta360 officially announced its entry into the consumer drone market, launching the “Yingling Antigravity” brand through third-party incubation.

Just a week later, DJI released its first panoramic camera, Osmo 360, with two custom 1/1.1-inch square sensors supporting up to 8K 50fps recording, and a standard package priced at 2,999 yuan.

This price is almost 300 yuan lower than the Insta360 flagship X5 (after price adjustment 3,298 yuan), creating a tense atmosphere.

Liu Jingkang immediately congratulated DJI on Weibo in the early morning after Osmo 360’s launch, while announcing X5’s price cut by 500 yuan as a response.

In fact, Insta360 has long anticipated DJI’s move into panoramic cameras.

All Weather Tech learned that Insta360’s internal view was: “Actually, DJI started this project earlier. I think it’s totally normal—they cover mobile and aerial imaging in their mission statements, so it’s inevitable. For a company of DJI’s scale to survive and grow, they will enter existing markets. It’s just a fundamental result.”

Frank Wang revealed his motivation for panoramic cameras: “The first time I saw a panoramic camera was about ten years ago at a Japanese camera show, made by Ricoh. At the time, due to technical limitations, we thought the imaging quality wasn’t great, and some fundamental technologies hadn’t matured—resolution was insufficient, and stitching always had flaws. Now it’s approaching a turning point—we feel it’s the right time.”

Coincidentally, Liu Jingkang also considered drone development carefully.

He kept a GoPro drone on his desk as a reminder: “I don’t know what I don’t know.”

“I believe GoPro did extensive testing in development, but the difficulty is—even with every method and every effort, extensive is not complete. Completeness only shows when users test in real scenarios. This is dying from ‘not knowing what you don’t know’.” Liu Jingkang admitted.

On December 4, 2025, Yingling Antigravity A1 officially went on sale.

This world’s first 8K panoramic drone, weighing 249g, is equipped with a 1/1.28-inch dual-lens panoramic imaging system, Vision flight goggles, and Grip motion controller. The standard version is priced at 7,999 yuan (6,799 yuan with government subsidy).

At the time, Liu Jingkang remarked in his WeChat Moments: “When we made the decision five years ago, we expected the move would provoke DJI to launch panoramic cameras, even if at the cost of being ‘wiped out’. But we still chose to embark. The reason is simple: running a marathon led by the top runners makes you faster; do you choose to idle in the newbie zone or pick a devil coach?”

Beneath the product arena, a harsher covert war unfolded in supply chain and channel fronts.

On December 8, 2025, Liu Jingkang released a lengthy internal letter, openly addressing supply chain struggles.

He said, in half a year as Insta360 pushed its drone project, as many as 33 core suppliers faced "exclusive" pressure, including 7 optics module suppliers, 8 structural parts, 3 screens, 2 batteries, 8 semiconductor components, and 5 others.

According to Economic Observer, Insta360’s supply chain head Zhou Guangtai reported that some suppliers cut ties after signing exclusivity agreements or receiving verbal notice from DJI.

An open supplier agreement bans any supply to competitors during the cooperation period for DJI-exclusive components, covering action cameras, panoramic cameras, drones, handheld gimbals, etc.

But this "supply chain isolation" is not one-way; Insta360’s suppliers similarly refrained from supplying DJI.

Insta360 panoramic camera lens supplier Hongjing Optoelectronics’ securities department clarified they have a deep strategic partnership with Insta360 and have not cooperated with DJI, since DJI is their client Insta360's competitor.

The channel war is equally intense.

In November 2025, a Changsha Insta360-authorized dealer invested a million yuan in store upgrades but had its sign removed, stemming from a mall lease supplement agreement signed by the mall and a DJI dealer, explicitly forbidding Insta360 brand stores.

Later, this exclusivity clause was invalidated by the local market regulatory authority.

DJI’s aggressive price war in H2 2025 was also rare.

Pocket 3 dropped up to 900 yuan for the first time; Action 4 dropped 1,129 yuan; Osmo 360 was priced 900 yuan lower than Insta360 X5; Pocket 4’s standard version launched at 2,999 yuan, 500 yuan less than the previous generation.

The market generally sees this aggressive pricing as a full-scale block against Insta360.

2025 financials show Insta360's revenue grew 76.85% year-on-year, but parent net profit fell by 3.08%.

Public opinion holds that this price war has put some profit pressure on Insta360.

Gateway Battle

DJI’s unprecedented counterattack comes partly from Liu Jingkang’s personality.

In traditional business wars, opponents favor ‘more action, less talk’, but 90s-born Liu Jingkang is passionate about expressing himself on public platforms, turning their disputes into public spectacles from WeChat Moments to Weibo to internal letters.

The deeper cause is the battle for imaging gateways.

With strong main business cash generation, Insta360 has more endurance than past challengers. But its dilemma is being consistently “under the thumb” of DJI in influence.

Insta360 faces pressure both from smartphones and DJI’s handheld imaging devices on one side, and from similar action camera competition on the other.

Hence, expanding to the skies became Insta360's optimal breakthrough. If it can break consumer perception that “DJI = drones” brand, and stand equal with DJI in buying decisions, then for Insta360, victory is achieved.

Insta360’s partnership drone is just the first step; the main brand’s drones are also in development.

Sources confirm to All Weather Tech that Insta360 will launch its own branded drones next.

What DJI truly cares about is not a single skirmish but the threat Insta360 poses to its entire product line dominance.

Caijing once quoted a DJI insider saying DJI previously saw Insta360 as "a benign and peaceful competitor," but the turning point was Liu Jingkang’s announcement of the panoramic drone.

DJI’s subsequent reaction speed showed just how intense it was—from Osmo 360 and aggressive discounts to supply chain pressure and patent lawsuits.

In just half a year, DJI mounted a comprehensive defensive counterattack across products, prices, channels, and legal affairs.

This rivalry is also determined by both companies’ geography and industrial DNA.

DJI and Insta360 both grew up in Shenzhen, sharing the same hardware supply chain soil. The industrial rhythm here compresses technological innovation’s windows immensely; any effective function is rapidly copied by the mature supply chain within months.

As players deeply focused on the imaging industry, the DJI-Insta360 showdown is destined to be a boundaryless war.

No matter who wins, as with Canon and Nikon by Tokyo Bay half a century ago, intense local competition is often the catalyst that propels an industry to global leadership.

Risk Disclosure and DisclaimerThe market has risks, and investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it consider the special investment objectives, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Readers should assess whether any opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions in this article suit their own circumstances. Invest accordingly at your own risk.