5 Chinese Brands That Have Crept Into Your Life, Flipping Narrative

DJI is the world’s largest drone maker

Company founded in: 2006

Market share in 2022: Over 70% (global) 

Competitors: Parrot, Skydio, XAG

Founded in 2006 out of a university dorm, DJI is the world’s largest drone maker, with offices in the US, Europe, and Japan.

It released its first ready-to-fly drone, the Phantom 1, in 2013 and has gone on to produce drones for a variety of purposes, including filmmaking, agricultural seeding, and search-and-rescue operations.

In 2021, the company had a 76% market share of the global consumer- and commercial-drone market, according to Statista.

It’s so dominant in the toy-drone market that it has squeezed out its older competition — the French drone maker Parrot, founded in 1994.

In 2019, Parrot said it was exiting the toy-drone market to focus on commercial drones — a move observers attributed to stiff competition from DJI.

DJI is a private company, so it doesn’t publish its financial statements.

As a Chinese drone maker, DJI has come under scrutiny from US authorities amid tensions between Washington and Beijing. Customers include the everyday consumer and governments.

In 2020, the Commerce Department added DJI to an entity list that restricted US companies from exporting products to the drone maker.

The Treasury also placed investment restrictions on DJI in 2021, alleging that its drone technology was used to surveil Uyghur Muslims in China.

However, consumers in the US can continue to buy and use DJI drones.