Why do domestic drone companies preempt large chunks of cake?

The drone industry has recently been surging. Globally, giants such as Amazon, Google and Facebook have laid out the drone market. Facebook founder Zuckerberg, speaking at MWC, said he wanted to use communications equipment, such as wireless hotspots, to help people in poor areas Connect, Google has conducted secret tests on its drone Project wing, and Amazon is actively exploring the mode of UAV delivery.

Domestic drones are also a thriving scene. Xinjiang Innovation announced its 2014 total revenue close to 3 billion yuan, 5-year total revenue doubled 100 times times, billion airlines 6-month valuation turned 25 times times; Rapoo technology 50 million yuan injection of zero-level intellectual control into the consumer-grade unmanned aerial vehicle market, trying to through strong alliances, change the industry competition pattern.

The global drone market will reach $67.3 billion trillion over the next decade, according to an analysis published in the US Aviation and space Technology Weekly. About 35.6 billion dollars will be spent on drone production, 28.7 billion dollars for technology research and experimental design, and maintenance services of about 3 billion dollars.

Why do domestic drone companies preempt large chunks of cake?

In February this year, 3D Robotics, an unmanned aircraft company founded by former editor of Wired magazine and author Chris Anderson of the long tail, announced that it had received 50 million of billions of dollars in financing, led by Qualcomm.

But it is worth noting that 3D Robotics won less than the whole "big cake" one-tenth, while the domestic innovation accounted for the global small unmanned aircraft 70% of the market share. So why is innovation in the frontier the top?

On the one hand, there are cities like Shenzhen as a global production base. Rich talent resources and perfect electronic industry supply chain, make the production and sales performance similar hardware products, domestic enterprises investment cost is much lower than foreign enterprises. Take a prototype to say, domestic enterprises may be tens of thousands of yuan to make a prototype, foreign enterprises have to spend hundreds of thousands of.

On the other hand, the software and algorithm of domestic enterprises start early, the advantage of technology first is obvious. The key technologies in the field of UAV include flight control technology, PTZ technology, image transmission technology, and so on, these are basically from universities and military institutes, such as focus on the consumer-level market in the great Xinjiang innovation, and focus on the professional-level market of zero-intelligence, they have already achieved long-term technical reserves and accumulation.

The big Xinjiang innovation one big situation is hopeful to change?

As soon as Rapoo Technology joined zero-intelligence to establish a joint venture company, Rapoo stock price trading. Some analysts believe that zero-intelligence control in the multi-rotor UAV field has more than eight years of technical accumulation, the company has strong research and development capabilities and leading robot integrated application automation production lines. The two powerful alliance to enter the consumer-level market, is expected to change the great Xinjiang innovation a single big situation.

Jianjun, founder of zero-intelligence control, said in an interview with Tencent Technology, "from the transformation of the professional market to the consumer-level market as a whole slow, we and Rapoo technology cooperation, mainly to trust the listed company's brand philosophy and product design, and hope that the use of its consumer-grade product genes, quickly make up for what we lack in the consumer market. ”

In addition to zero-intelligence control, the United States famous sports camera brand GoPro is also exploring its transformation path. Prior to the Xinjiang-GoPro cooperation, consumers often buy GoPro cameras when buying unmanned aircraft products. But recently, the Xinjiang began to launch the integrated unmanned aerial camera products, and production of sports cameras and other accessories.

At the same time, there is news that GoPro is also independent research and development of unmanned aerial vehicles, hoping to use the Dongfeng, from which to grab a slice of the soup. Some analysts believe that GoPro's own brand influence, coupled with the huge drone market, entry threshold is not high, it does not do it?

More importantly, GoPro's dream is far more than a hardware company, which is actively transforming into the media industry and building online video social networks. Recent media reports of Tencent Entertainment and nine-Star science and technology cooperation, but also hope to use the power of the drone in the video social field focus.

And the billion-dollar technology, which received $10 million trillion in GGV capital at the end of last year, is said to have doubled its valuation by 25 times times in 6 months. Billion Airlines founder Xiang Yifang told Tencent Technology, and the French consumer-class UAV giant parrot similar, they also use mobile phone app control unmanned aircraft, hope to bring users the most convenient, the most extreme experience.

Parrot unmanned aerial vehicles can support Oculus Rift virtual reality equipment, the future will also be integrated into the virtual reality of the function, while realizing the use of voice control drone Take-off and landing. "At present, the whole industry is only just beginning, or a blue sea market," Xiang Yifang said. The key is to make a big share in the market segment that you belong to. ”

What are the barriers facing the drone industry?

After the headlines of "Feng's success with the drone proposal", many people may have thought of the drone as a "proposed weapon". But the idea behind this creative security risks. Bad operation may cause harm to the bride or friend present. Similar cases have occurred in the United States.

At the same time, we cannot guarantee that drones will not be used as surveillance tools by some people, especially with cheap cameras. When drones become consumer goods from geek toys, how personal privacy can be ensured is also a problem that needs to be addressed.

Because of security and privacy concerns, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not been open to drone surveillance policy. Recently, Google, Amazon together with the Xinjiang, billion airlines and other companies set up a small drone alliance to support the drone enthusiasts and enthusiasts of the safe entertainment applications.

In addition, Apple Watch has been widely criticized for its short duration, and the long duration of the multiple-rotor drone is equally worrying. The great Xinjiang drone has a maximum of half an hour's flight and usually goes out with three or four batteries.

Jianjun, founder of zero-intelligence control, believes that the electric car industry wants to make a breakthrough in battery safety, energy density ratio, and that there is little chance of a major breakthrough in a short time. But he also stressed that endurance is a problem, but not a core issue.

In the 2015, the technical barriers to the intelligent UAV are the most critical. For example, the use of computer vision recognition technology to avoid obstacles intelligently, whether to do video tracking, such as pets to accompany children flying. ”

Jianjun said, "In the logistics field, Amazon, Taobao and so on to achieve the UAV delivery, we must solve the obstacle avoidance technology, to consider the unmanned aircraft carrying a certain weight of the package, its alone can fly how long distance, but also the systematic design of the air route." ”

Fortunately, these technologies are in the process of rapid development and breakthrough, as we saw at this year's CES show that Intel's investment drones use the latest sensors to achieve automatic avoidance without relying on the pilots to manually manipulate and move around.