Insta360: "Growth Without Profit"—Liu Jingkang's Ambition and Its Cost
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Author | Huang Yu
Editor | Wang Xiaojuan
In early October, the tech world witnessed a dramatic scene: when industry giant DJI faced user dissatisfaction due to price cuts on multiple products, the one who publicly “apologized” was unexpectedly its competitor—Insta360 (688775.SH) CEO Liu Jingkang.
This “cross-boundary” action by the 1990s-born founder was more of a declaration of war than a PR move. Now, the “war budget” for this declaration has been fully unveiled in Insta360’s first complete quarterly financial report after its June IPO.
The latest Q3 2025 report disclosed by Insta360 (hereafter “Insta360”) reveals a stark contrast: on one hand, operating income surged by 92.64% year-on-year to 2.94 billion yuan; on the other, net profit attributable to shareholders dropped 15.9% YoY, reaching only 272 million yuan.
Behind the growth in revenue but not in profit is a voluntarily chosen “growing pain”.
In Q3, Insta360’s R&D investment soared 164.81% YoY to 524 million yuan, almost twice the net profit for the period. This large expenditure is being used for “chip customization and strategic projects,” most likely allocated to the “Yingling Antigravity” panoramic drone developed to directly compete with DJI.
For this newly listed star, which saw its market cap soar past 120 billion yuan on the first day with a 274% price jump, this financial report marks the full-scale launch of a costly war that gambles on the “second curve” at the expense of short-term profits.
Expensive Entrance Ticket
Currently, Insta360 is executing an aggressive expansion strategy, continuously rolling out new products and expanding online and offline sales.
The report shows Insta360’s Q3 revenue growth rate of 92.6% has already far outpaced the previous two quarters’ 40.7% and 58.1%.
Reportedly, Insta360 has released the X5 panoramic camera, the GO Ultra pocket camera, the Flow 2 mobile gimbal, and other new products this year.
Galaxy Securities analysts point out that new product releases have boosted Insta360’s revenue growth, along with increased brand exposure from the public listing.
Insta360 places great importance on R&D and diversified business layouts, with drones at the core of its current diversification push.
In July this year, Insta360 announced its entry into the drone industry for the first time, planning to launch two drone brands: its own brand and the “Yingling Antigravity” panoramic drone brand co-developed with a third party.
Now, things are coming to a head. In its financial report, Insta360 said its drone business is progressing smoothly as planned, and the public testing of the “Yingling Antigravity” panoramic drone is nearing completion. The company preliminarily expects trial sales in select regional markets in Q4 this year.
To speed up breakthroughs in the drone business, Liu Jingkang is clearly generous with employee incentives.
On the night of August 14, over a hundred members of the Insta360 panoramic drone project team held a small team-building event. During the event, Liu Jingkang dramatically tossed money to employees below, who scrambled to catch it. The video went viral online and sparked heated discussions.
This direct competition with DJI is undoubtedly costly. Insta360’s Q3 R&D spending of 524 million yuan not only grew 164.81% YoY, but also nearly matched its R&D investment for the first half of this year (560 million yuan).
Of course, regarding this big bet, Insta360 is cautious in its latest report. The company warns investors that the actual release time may be adjusted due to factors such as supply chain support, international logistics, market changes, and optimization based on test results, resulting in uncertainty.
DJI’s counterattack, however, came even faster.
At the end of July, DJI launched the Osmo 360 panoramic camera, which matches the specs of Insta360’s X5 but is priced 800 yuan lower at 2,999 yuan. In response, Insta360 quickly cut the price of its similar product, the Insta360 X5, by 500 yuan.
Liu Jingkang stated publicly that in the panoramic camera market competition with DJI, the best case is increased capabilities and market size, with Insta360’s sales, gross margin, revenue, and profit all growing. The second-best scenario is rising sales but declining gross margin, with revenue and profit still increasing. The worst is that some major business indicators decline during certain periods.
Evidently, as DJI enters the panoramic camera market, Insta360’s flagship products face fiercer competition and unavoidable margin pressure. This means Insta360 must rapidly find breakthroughs in the drone space to avoid the awkward situation where “core business is squeezed, new business doesn’t take off.”
High-Profile Challenger
No matter how strong the competition, 2025 can be considered an exuberant year for Insta360.
This year, the company which outpaced all competitors to top the global panoramic camera market finally went public. On its IPO day, the stock price soared 285% above its issue price, market cap exceeded 70 billion yuan, making it the most watched “tech stock star” of the year.
Insta360’s IPO was not easy—starting formally in 2020 and finally succeeding nearly four and a half years later.
In the second half of last year, Liu Jingkang posted a long reflection in his WeChat moments, revealing IPO hardships: “All salary goes to pay interest,” “No regulator has suggested withdrawing, I don’t ask for approval, only fair treatment,” etc.
Evidently, the successful IPO pulled Insta360 out of trouble in time and gave it the courage to declare war on “drone big brother” DJI.
Insta360’s management also explained in its semiannual report the reason for entering the drone market: drones have much higher market ceiling, and many existing needs remain unmet, so there is ample room for business and market growth.
“At the same time, a brand new category like panoramic drones can achieve functions traditional cameras and drones cannot, cover many new scenarios, attract users to create incremental new markets, and form a positive cycle from demand insight, product R&D, to market promotion, enabling the sustainable completion of the commercial closed loop.”
Market appeal is critical, but the reason Insta360 dared to launch such an aggressive “war” in its IPO year is fundamentally its unique corporate culture and Liu Jingkang’s “idiosyncratic” management style.
Liu Jingkang once said that he is motivated by the idea “You only live once.”
Under this belief, Insta360, a big company with over 3,000 employees, has a strong “playful spirit” in its corporate culture, insisting that “Insta360 prioritizes creation over survival.”
Insta360 has actually been laying out plans for drones for years. According to its prospectus, since July 1, 2020, Insta360 has continuously registered numerous “drone” and “panoramic drone” patents, with its patent layout deepening to cover drone structure, propellers, power systems, and more.
Nevertheless, Insta360 is facing DJI, the dominant force in the drone market, and this battle will not be easy.
When talking about DJI, Liu Jingkang also said that DJI is much stronger than it appears and most people realize.
However, he thinks: “The marathon leader is a top athlete, and you’ll also run faster; one could choose to slack off in the newbie village, or take on a ‘devil coach.’ When making the decision before the new year, we anticipated this move would provoke DJI to make a ‘family raid’ on panoramic cameras, even if that was the price, we chose to set sail five years ago.”
For Insta360, “the pain of betting on drones will continue—R&D spending will remain high in the short term, net profit may stay under pressure, but once a foothold in panoramic drones is established, the path from ‘panoramic camera leader’ to ‘global smart imaging giant’ opens up.”
This global smart imaging war, launched by Chinese companies, now seems to have only two main players at the table: Insta360 and DJI.
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