Since 2006, China's DJI has gone from start-up to the world’s No 1 drone manufacturer. The company now has a 70 per cent share of the global civilian drone market and is also one of the world’s most highly priced start-ups, with some estimates giving it a valuation of as much as US$10 billion.
DJI's great success has inspired many Chinese entrepreneurs and companies, and sparked the interest of the country's venture capitalists, who are now investing readily in the consumer and small commercial drones market. SCMP staff reporters have sifted through this fiercely competitive industry to find some of the most promising companies. Their inclusion is based on the technology they offer, funding received and the combination of their flagship drones’ accessibility, affordability and performance.
DJI
In 2006, mainland-born Frank Wang Tao graduated from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and set up a company in Shenzhen, China’s hardware hub that was once dubbed “the world’s workshop”. Since then, DJI has grown from 50 employees to 3,500, with sales skyrocketing from three million to 3 billion yuan annually. DJI's Phantom range of camera-bearing drones has become the market leader, in part thanks to hundreds of videos on social networking sites such as YouTube showing off the devices’ high-definition aerial photographs.
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