DJI enters the energy storage market! Is the drone giant also crossing over?

If we go back to 2006, who could have imagined that a small warehouse of 20 square meters in Chegongmiao, Shenzhen, would give birth to the "strongest post-80s" with a net worth of over 40 billion?

17 years later, in a small space, the drone empire was created. DJI has become the world's number one drone brand, accounting for more than 70% of global drone shipments for many consecutive years, and carrying the banner of the rise of China's smart manufacturing.

But obviously, DJI's ambition is not limited to drones. Rumors and cases prove that on the road to running towards the entire industry chain, DJI is also extending into more fields and making cross-border layouts.

Recently, DJI released a new outdoor battery product - DJI Power, making a high-profile entry into the energy storage field.

01 Entering the red ocean, why did DJI enter a new track?

At present, my country is in the stage of rapidly promoting carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Energy storage, as a key link, has ushered in unprecedented development opportunities.

For a time, new and old players flocked in, and the energy storage industry became a bloody storm.

Generally speaking, entering the energy storage field today is either a helpless move to avoid the risk of economic downturn, or a business decision to seize a new track.

But for a technology giant like DJI, it would be a bit arbitrary to just stop there.

Entering the energy storage industry, a seemingly "cross-border" move, is actually another step for DJI to build a smart terminal ecosystem based on its basic businesses such as drones.

"Ecology" is DJI's magic weapon for iterative counterattack

As a company that has built a "consumer-grade drone" empire from scratch, DJI is well aware of the importance of ecosystem construction.

DJI focuses on drone users and actively expands its products and solutions. This allows DJI to continuously enrich its ecosystem content and strengthen stickiness with users at all levels, thereby stimulating more business demand.

This "point-to-surface" ecosystem building model has enabled DJI to achieve amazing growth in just over a decade, becoming a giant unicorn with a valuation of over 100 billion yuan.

DJI Power also follows this idea - combining users' real-life scenario demands, finding new growth points, and creating a richer ecological system.

The newly launched DJI POWER 1000 and DJI POWER 500 have the advantages of fast charging, safety, durability, and efficient energy storage, and continue DJI's consistent high cost-effectiveness. The prices are 3,499 yuan and 2,099 yuan respectively.

In addition, it also supports fast power supply for drones including Mavic3, Air3, Inspire 3 TB51, M30 TB30, etc., and you only need 3 drone batteries and DJI Powe to fly all day long.

From this, it can be seen that DJI’s energy storage layout is more focused on providing supporting solutions for drone customers and improving the drone ecosystem.

Technology and brand quickly gaining ground

Drones have extremely high requirements for battery technology. In fact, DJI has been quietly developing batteries for many years.

Judging from the Mavic series of drones, in just a few generations, battery life has increased from 34 minutes to more than 50 minutes, and the battery energy density has been greatly improved.

At present, DJI has mastered independent intellectual property rights in battery cells, power management and other aspects. This is due to DJI's continued consideration of battery technology as its core competitiveness and its strong R&D investment.

It can be said that DJI’s experience in batteries provides the technical foundation for its rapid entry into energy storage.

In the outdoor power segment, DJI's main competitors are mainly professional energy storage companies. Although these companies have advantages in technology, DJI may be able to compete with them in terms of brand influence and market recognition under the halo effect.

Therefore, DJI's choice of energy storage is not only in line with external policies and industrial opportunities, but also based on its own unique technology and brand advantages.

This is the confidence behind its entry into the Red Ocean.

02 The cross-border DNA of the drone giant

DJI’s “cross-border logic”

Looking at DJI’s development history, cross-border and extension have always been an important part of the company’s strategy.

Do you remember the DJI Phantom launched by DJI in 2012? This product is not only the world's first all-in-one aerial photography machine, but also pioneered the consumer drone market, bringing a professional field into the public entertainment field.

DJI then made rapid progress.

After completing its layout in the consumer drone market, DJI realized that a single business could hardly support the company's continued rapid growth, and that seeking to diversify its business and revenue sources would also help it resist the uncertainty of the external environment.

Founder Wang Tao also said in 2016: "The drone market is about to reach saturation, and DJI's revenue will reach its peak at 20 billion yuan." (Although DJI is now more than that).

So DJI began to try new business expansion.

In 2016, DJI launched the handheld gimbal Osmo for the first time. Through three-axis gimbal stabilization technology, it allows more photographers to easily obtain ultra-stable images. It has now been upgraded to the sixth generation.

In 2019, DJI launched its first educational robot product, RoboMaster S1, which brings together DJI's years of technological accumulation in the fields of visual recognition, sensor motion, and intelligent interaction, and demonstrates strong completion and prospects.

Compared to many primary educational robots that can only be assembled simply , the RoboMaster has more of DJI's technological essence in its genes. DJI hopes to promote children's interest in robots by implanting innovative fun into the education field.

In 2021, DJI launched "DJI Car", announcing its official entry into the field of intelligent driving, and has mastered the key technologies of visual positioning and obstacle avoidance required for autonomous driving. Before that, DJI Innovations had already laid out its intelligent driving layout, not only with a large team of more than 700 people, but also incubated its laser radar subsidiary Livox.

In September this year, the first mass-produced model equipped with DJI's intelligent driving assistance system - Wuling Baojun Yunduo Lingxi version was officially launched on the market. It not only has functions such as lane keeping and adaptive cruise control, but also has a price close to 100,000 yuan. This configuration is quite shocking.

This is not a "sudden idea". DJI's layout in the field of autonomous driving is meticulous and in-depth, and can be said to be "adapting to local conditions".

In addition, DJI has also increased its investment in industrial-grade and agricultural-grade drones, and has frequently appeared in cutting-edge technology fields such as electric bicycles and VR headsets.

In these seemingly unrelated new businesses, it is not difficult to find the commonality of DJI's "devotion to technology".

In other words, many of DJI's seemingly "cross-border" attempts are actually deeper exploration and expansion of the company's existing technology and industry accumulation, and opening up new market segments through innovation.

The business logic is: starting from user needs → using technology and solutions to overcome pain points → satisfying users and creating a better experience, thereby opening up a new market space.

This seemingly simple logic is the key to bringing DJI from an initial model aircraft enthusiast to its current dominance in both drones and imaging equipment.

Therefore, the outside world's concerns about DJI's entry into energy storage are actually unnecessary.

As a cross-border "victorious general", DJI obviously knows better than anyone how to find a new battlefield to expand its territory.

The huge advantage behind

Today, DJI has abundant user resources and possesses strong brand power that acts as a "glue" to connect users.

For example, in the complex drone market, in China, DJI has maintained a market share of about 90% for many years, which means that the vast majority of novice users, and even veteran players, have their first or only drone from DJI.

It is conceivable that for these users, DJI has become synonymous with fashion and a walking "living signboard".

For business expansion, this can not only rely on brand appeal to attract early customers from a large target group and open up the mainstream market faster, but it is also more conducive to large-scale interaction accumulation and help to deeply understand the direction of product iteration.

This can also be seen in RoboMaster.

This robot product, which is aimed at science and technology competitions and education, has attracted the first batch of seed users through its brand effect, and its product performance has further opened up its market recognition. After mature commercial operations, RoboMaster has now become the number one IP in the STEAM education track with remarkable achievements.

03 The rise of DJI reflects the upgrading of China’s smart manufacturing

In recent years, with the world economy recovering sluggishly and protectionism on the rise, Chinese companies are facing unprecedented severe tests. Especially in high-tech industries such as chips, China has suffered from sanctions.

DJI's growth trajectory as a cutting-edge technology company reflects the dawn of China's manufacturing industry's progress from a "manufacturing power" to a "manufacturing powerhouse."

In the past, many people summarized "Made in China" as copycats and low-end OEM. However, through independent innovation, DJI has grown into a leader in the drone industry and has also achieved impressive results in areas such as educational robots.