Drone entrepreneurship: The Story of the sky is just beginning

UAV has become one of the hottest areas of entrepreneurship.

It's not just defined as a flying camera, it's not just the aerial photography industry that's subversive, it's more and more in our lives: watering the crops in the fields, analyzing their growth data and pest information, delivering the goods to guests ' homes as "couriers", and even including power line inspections, Earthquake detection, geological exploration, urban fire and other fields ...

Of course, the question may follow: can drones really be so smart? Will this be a publicity stunt by the media? Is the UAV delivery a marketing hype stunt?

Entrepreneurial boom

In the US, from Google to Facebook to Amazon and even Disney, the drone market is being looked at, and recently GoPro, the sports camera maker, has announced that it will enter the drone sector: in mid-August this year, Google conducted a covert experiment on Project wing of its drone program, This series of tests together put Google Project Wing secret project to the climax of the first phase, the project had been launched two years ago in the Google X laboratory, while Facebook's drones will carry wireless hotspots and other communications equipment climbed to 60000 feet, To provide online support for consumers on the ground, with solar panels, drones can fly in the air for months or even years.

And compared to foreign giants in the drone project, the domestic giants are a little cautious, and did not send similar news, this is the domestic entrepreneurs see the opportunity.

Lenovo star senior investment manager Zhang Richi to NetEase technology, the attention of its unmanned aircraft Entrepreneurship project has been nearly hundred; Zhang Richi said the drone boom, which began last year, was the second in the drone's history, the first in about 2007 years. At this stage, because of the birth of the great Xinjiang in China, many overseas institutions will look to China.

It is understood that at this stage, Millet has been quietly unmanned aircraft layout, mobile phone manufacturer Ling Fox will be launched in 2015 their own unmanned aircraft products.

Is it false?

The fiery drone venture has also been considered "false" by many people. But many in the industry do not approve of this claim.

As Chris Anderson said, it is now a sensor world, with cameras and sensors on the ground everywhere, but still empty in the sky; most entrepreneurs and industry insiders believe that the sky's imagination has not yet begun.

For a few large unmanned aircraft manufacturers of specific sales, there is no specific data can be disclosed; however, the revenue from the world's leading UAV battery provider gens ACE can be understood: the revenues from Parrot, a large group of unmanned aerial vehicles, are already 60% of the company's revenue, One of the big Xinjiang battery supply has risen from the past tens of thousands of sets per month to more than 100,000 sets, while the parrot up to 70.8 million sets.

The growing demand for the drone parts market also underscores the increasing demand for drone sales.

The influx of entrepreneurs, are directed at this huge business opportunities; with the big Xinjiang, for example, because the Xinjiang in the unmanned Aerial vehicle field accumulation, its product gross margin up to 100% or even higher, this perhaps is the hardware domain to start the biggest "money" scene, to the entrepreneur the product end benefit already is very considerable.

What attracts entrepreneurs is not just the high gross margin produced by drones. According to the International Association of Unmanned Transportation Systems management, in 10 years of commercial use of unmanned aerial vehicles, there are also 100,000 jobs and 82 billion dollar worth.

How do entrepreneurs cut in?

In many people's perceptions, drones are still the same as toys; Yang Yi, one of the founders of the Xinjiang community, said: "2012 years, the development of four-rotor products in the enthusiasm of the people also have a trace of confusion: Four rotary wing aircraft is very fun, but it besides as a toy, what is the value of it? ”

Just as the parrot company's ar.drone was defined as a toy, DJI's first multiple rotor products were defined as toys, model aircraft. According to Yang Yi revealed that at the end of 2012, he met an angel investor, and bluntly that he did not like DJI such a toy company.

But into the 2014, once the investors were not optimistic about their own position regret, because the Xinjiang has become the focus of scientific and technological attention, both products and markets are bullish.

Zhang Richi said to NetEase technology, unmanned aerial vehicles from the early use of the War field, to start in the industrial, agricultural areas, and then the rise of the current civil field, in fact, not suddenly: The American Silicon Valley launched by the Geek movement, so that more people began to pay attention to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the personal field. It is understood that the State Grid, the annual large number of unmanned aircraft bidding projects, mainly used in mountainous areas such as surveying and mapping, compared to civil areas, in the industrial field of unmanned aircraft demand has been a concern.

How do you find the entry point for the entrepreneur? The following 2 cases may be of some reference importance:

1. Billion Airlines Nuggets aerial shooting field

Because of the impact of the Xinjiang, a number of entrepreneurs in the country began to join the boom in the drone venture. The point they cut into is very clear--aerial. China's pioneering company billion airlines has launched two aircraft-level drone, its founder Xiang Yifang to NetEase Technology revealed that the company's new products have been in the United States Indiegogo Web site online, a few days on the breakthrough of hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars, which also shows the United States consumers of the drone products of the degree of enthusiasm. Xiang Yi in an interview with NetEase Technology, said, "billion air ghost unmanned aircraft positioning is to make the flight is no longer a minority of patents, he further explained: In the future, the popularity of UAVs will be like smartphones, solve a lot of users real life problems, and the first cut is the aerial shooting field.

From the aerial photography, now can see the use of space are: Film and television shooting, public relations events shooting, personal interest shooting and other major scenes.

"Now in the field of aerial filming, although the star products such as Xinjiang, but its relatively high price, over control and not intelligent, for billion airlines this is the opportunity." Xiang Yifang said that for the billion airlines, the potential of aerial filming field to see the determination to increase investment.

Bears are known in social media as one of the "new" entrepreneurial representatives. For the drone venture, he spoke frankly about his love of tossing and going, which was the driving force behind his entrepreneurial drive.

2. Fly and Shun Fung in the field of logistics attempts

Not long ago, Amazon announced that it would use unmanned aerial vehicles for logistics and distribution to increase efficiency; in China's Pearl River Delta region, Shun Fung Express has taken the lead in the use of UAV logistics, although the actual effect is not clear, but as the CIS-Fung UAV service provider, flying into the focus of attention, the company since 07 has begun to dabble in the drone project companies , is also one of the earliest unmanned aircraft team.

One of the founders of Justingong to NetEase technology revealed that Shun Fung Logistics project has 500 extremely flying unmanned aircraft into operation, mainly in the Pearl River Delta region, distribution weight within 2.5 kg, at this stage, the application of more is the freight between the site deployment.

It is understood that very fly has been known for flying control technology, Justingong said that a large number of domestic and foreign aircraft products are flying flying control, flight control is the most critical part of the UAV, similar to the motherboard on the PC is the basis of all hardware. As a polar fly, now the main business is the civilian UAV and industrial UAV two lines in operation, industrial unmanned aerial vehicles are more used with the government enterprises to carry out business jointly.

Similar to flying, the United States also has a pioneering company called Skycatch, the business is aerial data collection, they through the four-axis aircraft to the terrain of the aerial shoot, and the data sold, or provide related services.

Where's the obstruction?

While drones are a big fan of entrepreneurship, it is important to see the following areas that will have a significant impact on future development.

1. Unmanned aerial vehicles to the aircraft. At this stage, the concept of UAV is more than model aircraft evolution, even the largest unmanned aircraft manufacturers in the country, in the product level is still unable to get rid of remote control devices, if it is simply the aerial beat function, then the so-called UAV is still only the upgrade products.

However, there is no denying that aerial filming in the current market demand is great, billion airlines, extremely fly, the big Xinjiang is chooses the aerial photograph as the cut-in point, but more importantly, the aerial intelligent ecology which is extended by it is the core of the whole future, for example: The real UAV can complete the task by the machine instruction independently, all is the future attention point.

2. Aerial safety of unmanned aerial vehicles. UAV safety is the reason why many investors are cautious about UAV project at the present stage, because the lack can guarantee the safety and controllability of UAV in the operation process, which is the core point of government policy.

A football match was held in Belgrade in October, with both Serbia and Albania's national teams, and the competition was disrupted by the manipulation of an unmanned aerial vehicle hovering over the field, the fuselage flying a large Albanian flag that was politically sensitive to many people in the stadium.

The Air field is the core of security issues, and if the drones break through the security perimeter, it will also create important territorial security issues.

3. Four rotor market UAV hardware bottleneck. At this stage, the UAV venture into the four-rotor market, as a pioneer of the Xinjiang also has its own view, "the four-rotor market is likely to shrink, because it lasts a short time, carrying a small weight, but also like mosquitoes buzzing, not suitable for most of the applications we want to implement." Yang Yi said, now people think can use four rotary wing delivery or do this dry, simply because you show it to them.

4. Policy risk. The domestic laws and regulations of the UAV is not perfect, can be found, only the "Civil unmanned aerial vehicle System driver management interim provisions" and the Civil Aviation Authority's "Civil UAV air traffic management measures", did not see any details or specific office procedures, that is to say: The state of the UAV has too many gray areas, not clear the way unknown. Yang Yi even take the car as an example to explain, "when the car was first invented, there are laws requiring the car speed can not exceed the carriage." ”

In the United States, civil Aviation regulations prohibit commercial drone flights; more than 140 companies have queued up in the FAA to make an exception for drone commercial flights, according to a recent US government disclosure.

5. UAV application scenarios. The U.S. drone's enthusiasm is because people live in the region is mostly far away from the city's satellite, and China is not, the city's living area and business district is not obvious between the separation, living scenes for unmanned aerial vehicle application is urgent to be seen. In addition, the unmanned aerial vehicle popularization, just like the smartphone early stage, the player is limited, how can produce the player in the application level interaction, also is the UAV manufacture enterprise to ponder the place.

Change, maybe within 3 or 5 years.

Man has always had an urgent pursuit of the sky. But how long will it take to change the drone field in the absence of 20 years of civil aviation?

Maybe the next 3-5 years.

No one has ever counted the number of drones in the world to date, and the 3D robotics drone manufacturer predicts there are at least 500,000 in the United States. The maker has a famous founder, Chris Anderson, editor of the former US Wired magazine, who is keen to build an Android ecosystem in the smart airplane field.

Anderson believes that the Android iOS camp in the smartphone market may be in the future in the drone sector, and that giants such as Google and Facebook are starting to enter the field, perhaps a precursor to competition.

Perhaps for the story of the sky, we have been imagining that the drone is just the beginning.

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)