Perhaps you are because of... Insta360 If you're not familiar with Insta360 and chose to click on this article, I hope to introduce you to its brand story, founding background, technological philosophy, and how it differs from competitors like DJI and GoPro in the simplest way possible.
If you want to learn more about Insta360, please read on!
Why recommend Insta360?
Ten years ago, Insta360’s brand recognition was far behind that of GoPro and DJI—not because its products were inferior, but because its competitors had far stronger brand presence. However, being unknown doesn’t mean lacking capability. In fact, Insta360’s action camera manufacturing capabilities had already surpassed GoPro’s four or five years ago; the problem was that limited brand exposure made this progress largely invisible to the broader market.
I would recommend Insta360 for several reasons:
- The brand's development goal is not GoPro, but rather "imaging brands like Sony and Fujifilm that can live for a hundred years".
- The product is good to use.
Insta360's products made me feel that"A passion for images"—It's not just about filming extreme sports, but also about recording everyday life in a "simpler way".
Where does Insta360 originate?
Insta360's Origins: A Young Imaging Company Founded in Shenzhen
Insta360 is headquartered in Shenzhen, a city known as "China's Silicon Valley." Shenzhen has an average age of only 32, is brimming with innovation, and its main industries are technology and IT. Insta360 is a product of this environment.
This city is also the birthplace of DJI. Although Insta360 is far smaller than DJI, by 2025 Insta360 will have 3,000 to 4,000 employees (DJI has 10,000 to 20,000 employees) and will have the R&D capabilities to work with the world’s top imaging manufacturers.
- Just because Insta360 is made in China, does that mean it should be labeled as suspicious?
Political influences inevitably lead some to hold negative impressions of China, causing others to harbor doubts about Chinese brands. In reality, the vast majority of home appliances on the market are either entirely made in China or have core components sourced from China. Even iPhones and many cars bear the "Made in China" label. While this country of origin might cause some minor political anxieties for some, most people, after actual use, are quite satisfied with the performance of Chinese-made products and have already integrated them into their daily lives. To conclude that Insta360 has problems solely based on its "Made in China" label is far-fetched.
If you choose a cheap, unknown Chinese brand, you might indeed end up with a defective product; however, most well-known brands have strict quality control and excellent quality. If Insta360's quality were truly so poor, it would have been impossible for it to surpass GoPro in sales.
- Will the information be leaked?
Insta360+ cloud services are hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), a server with top-tier global security. Insta360 has always placed great emphasis on the management and protection of user information, making the risk of information leakage extremely low.
All software updates for the Insta360 official app are released through official channels such as the Apple Store and Google Play, and their security is widely recognized.
Founder: A young CEO born in 1991
Insta360's founder, Liu Jingkang (JK), born in 1991, is almost the youngest CEO of a listed company on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in mainland China.
He is a typical entrepreneur who went "from 0 to 1":
- He made headlines in college for cracking the phone numbers of famous people.
- They could hack into the school administration system, obtain 7,000 student ID photos, compile statistics on the "standard faces" of each department, or publish exam answers.
- Choosing to start a business and company before graduating from undergraduate studies
It was these "unique" experiences that caught the attention of IDG Capital. At the time, the Insta360 team consisted of only 6 people, the product was far from mature, and the members were all classmates working part-time. JK hadn't even graduated yet, but IDG still decided to join as an angel investor—for one simple reason: "Investing in people."
From live streaming software to panoramic cameras
At the beginning of his business, JK developed live streaming software.
In 2013, he started developing the live streaming software "Famous University Live", which provides real-time live streaming of courses from key universities and has completed more than 200 live streams at nine universities. Later, he expanded his business to the B2B field and founded "V Live".
But what truly changed the course of his life was a chance encounter—in 2014, JK saw a 360-degree panoramic video stitched together from multiple cameras online. The powerful visual impact and unprecedented perspective deeply moved him. He believed that panoramic imaging would become a new way of recording in the future. Although brands like Samsung and Ricoh had already launched panoramic cameras, the transmission and stitching speed between the camera and the phone was extremely slow, resulting in a less than ideal user experience. The live streaming software he was researching also shared many similarities with panoramic cameras, which made JK realize:There is still a lot of room for improvement in panoramic cameras.
So he made a crucial decision: to shift from the live streaming field to "panoramic imaging technology".
Live streaming's "instant" nature combined with a panoramic "360" view.Insta360 was thus born.
In July 2015, Insta360 was officially established. Over the past decade, JK has led Insta360 to develop into a unique imaging brand. Even though its products are generally priced higher than GoPro and DJI, they still continue to sell well—this market performance has become Insta360's most representative proof of success.
Growth: Creating the first product, the Insta360 Nano
In July 2016, Insta360 launched its first commercial product— Insta360 NanoIt was once considered the key to the company's takeoff, but it followed a "high start, low finish" trajectory.
Nano significantly improved upon the slow transmission and long stitching times of panoramic cameras from Samsung, Ricoh, and other manufacturers at the time, making it an instant sensation at CES 2016. It was not only praised as "amazing" by Apple's co-founder, but also attracted a large number of overseas distributors to negotiate. After the CES exhibition, Insta360's revenue even jumped from 0 to 20 million RMB in just one month.
Even after the CES hype, the Nano and other panoramic cameras of that era still couldn't escape the common problems they faced—The failure to truly address the needs of target users in core scenarios led to insufficient sales of subsequent products.
When the product encountered setbacks, the company also faced funding difficulties, making the second year after Nano's release the most vulnerable period for JK since starting his business. During this time, JK found a turning point within Nano's user community:Several users shared videos they shot with the Nano while skiing, cycling, and downhill. He immediately wondered – could an "action camera" and a "panoramic camera" be combined?
The Nano lacks the basic requirements of an action camera: it's not waterproof, has a non-replaceable battery, and isn't even particularly shock-resistant, making it theoretically unsuitable for extreme sports. Only after in-depth discussions with more users did the real answer emerge:
The "shoot first, frame later" feature eliminates the need to think about composition beforehand in scenarios like skiing and motorcycling. For users shooting in these scenarios, they would prefer a panoramic camera that allows them to shoot 360 degrees without having to think about composition, rather than a wide-angle action camera.
Developing 360° panoramic action cameras
Traditional GoPro action cameras use wide-angle lenses, requiring users to pay attention to framing the shot while filming; while panoramic cameras can capture the entire 360° view first, and then users can choose which angle to keep in post-production – a huge advantage for people who need to be highly focused, such as when cycling or skiing.
Ten years ago, "panoramic action cameras" were not a popular product at all; they were even considered a niche market. This was because GoPro had completely dominated the "action camera" market. JK's strategy wasn't to avoid competition or find a "blue ocean":Discover new needs and redefine the productThe
After 18 months of research and development, Insta360 finally launched its first panoramic action camera in 2018. ONE XThis panoramic camera, hailed as "black technology" by the industry, allowed Insta360, a company less than four years old, to surpass Samsung and Ricoh in the panoramic camera field, becoming the world's number one panoramic camera in terms of shipments. After the One X, Insta360 maintained a one- to two-year update cycle for its panoramic cameras, with the latest generation expected in 2025 already... Insta360 X5The
The ONE X series launched its first-generation product, ONE X, in October 2018, with sales primarily concentrated in the fourth quarter of 2018 and throughout 2019. The second-generation product, ONE X2, was launched in October 2020; the third-generation product, ONE X3, in September 2022; and the fourth-generation product, ONE X4, in April 2024. During the reporting period, sales revenue for the ONE X series was RMB 688.0144 million, RMB 1,092.4294 million, RMB 2,008.5014 million, and RMB 1,270.264 million, respectively.The percentages of the company's total sales revenue were 52.431 TP3T, 54.361 TP3T, 55.921 TP3T and 52.771 TP3T, respectively.
According to Insta360ProspectusThe panoramic camera has consistently accounted for more than 50% of sales, making it the brand's flagship product.
Insta360 Studio, a post-production software development platform.
In 2019, Insta360 discovered an even deeper pain point:
The biggest problem for users is not filming, but editing.Therefore, the team quickly shifted their focus to the software side, launching an AI editing tool. Insta360 StudioThis makes "shooting and getting the final product instantly" a reality.
Following the ONE X, Insta360 successively released the ONE X2, X3, X4, and the X5 in 2025. The series also officially evolved from "ONE X" to the "X series". I only started to really use Insta360's panoramic cameras for a long time after the X3 was released in 2022.
As of 2023, Insta360 had 238 authorized patents worldwide, achieving global leadership in the field of panoramic technology; its revenue outside mainland China increased to approximately 801 million Tbt, which is almost a significant achievement.Insta360 = panoramic camera.
Panoramic cameras have evolved from niche cameras suitable for skiing and cycling to mainstream 8K panoramic cameras, capable of shooting sports and recording vlogs, culminating in the latest X5. In 2025, DJI officially entered this market, launching its first panoramic camera, the DJI Osmo 360—a move that, to some extent, signifies that Insta360's success has made other competitors somewhat uneasy.
Outbreak: Head-to-head with GoPro and DJI
Release action camera Ace Pro
Starting in 2023, Insta360's category expansion has entered a truly head-on competition.
In November 2023, Insta360 officially launched its collaboration with LEICA. Ace series—Focusing on the most mainstream and highly competitive "wide-angle action camera" market segment. Competing against DJI and GoPro.
Back in October 2021, when Ace Pro was being developed and initiated, the market landscape was already clear:
- The GoPro Hero series has reached its 10th generation.
- DJI Osmo Action has been pushed to its 3rd generation.
- Market size of panoramic action cameras: Approximately 5 billion RMB
- Global Market Size of Wide-Angle Action Cameras: Approximately RMB 18.1 billion
In other words, the Ace series has directly entered the "battleground of two giants" that GoPro and DJI have dominated for many years.
Although Insta360 was not a large company at the time, it had already made ample preparations in terms of strategic reserves:
The company's assets were close to 4 billion RMB. Even under extreme circumstances where there was no revenue for the next five years, it could still support the continued operation of its 2,000 employees at the time—and the success of the X3 and GO 3 had already allowed Insta360 to maintain its quarterly revenue. 40.7% Year-on-year growth.
Harvesting GoPro users
The Ace Pro is a very special product to me because I had the opportunity to try it before it was released.
As a heavy GoPro user, I had already developed muscle memory for the operation logic of this "wide-angle action camera". When I first got my hands on the Ace Pro, I could use it intuitively without any learning and immediately felt that this camera was "very promising".
The Ace Pro entered the mature wide-angle action camera market, but still found a need that could be "evolved" again:
- Users who enjoy cycling, running, hiking, and other similar activities are eager to display their exercise data.
Connect Garmin cycling computers with Apple Watch to instantly overlay information such as heart rate, speed, and power onto the screen. - Motorcycle riders want to preserve the authentic engine sound
It incorporates noise-reducing and windproof materials, and relies on AI to preserve the "mechanical sound" in specific frequency bands. - Street photography and travelers expect different ways of using it.
The Ace Pro 2's "street photography kit" was inspired by user DIY – once attached, it transforms into a "Leica-style street photography camera."
Besides its similar appearance, even the tactile feedback of the camera's boot button mimics the feel of a mirrorless camera; photos also feature Leica-style watermarks. After its launch, sales exceeded expectations by more than 10 times.
These details demonstrate Insta360's keen observation of "imaging needs," and have led many GoPro fans like myself to switch to Insta360. With the second generation of the Ace Pro, the Ace Pro 2, sales have already reached a 101% market share (TP3T).
The first generation of the Insta360 Ace series was launched in November 2023, and the second generation, Ace Pro 2, was launched in October 2024. In 2023 and the first half of 2024, the series generated sales revenue of RMB 96.5607 million and RMB 276.0028 million, respectively, accounting for 2.691% and 11.471% of the company's total sales revenue, respectively.
The Soul of a Visual Company: The Fundamental Differences Between Insta360 and GoPro
Since the Ace Pro was launched, Insta360 has often been compared to GoPro and DJI – their similar uses and comparable performance make competition inevitable. However, Insta360's product philosophy is fundamentally different from GoPro's.
The story of GoPro's creation is both simple and romantic:
The founder loved surfing, and in order to be able to film surfing footage, he created GoPro.
Therefore, GoPro is essentially a "camera born from extreme sports".
This is why it has long enjoyed a strong appeal in the European and American markets.
In contrast:
Insta360 focuses on the fields of imaging technology and content creation.
It wasn't created for a specific sport, but rather aimed at a broader range of "video enthusiasts" from the start—which makes it particularly popular in the digital technology world and naturally places greater emphasis on AI, software experience, and creative gameplay.
I once asked a friend who works at Insta360 what the company's long-term goals were. His answer was quite interesting:
Insta360 doesn't want to become the next GoPro or DJI; it aspires to be an imaging company like Sony or Fujifilm that can last for a hundred years.
At this stage, their most direct competitors remain GoPro and DJI.
The Ace Pro represents their most crucial head-on confrontation since entering the mainstream action camera market. In 2024, the Ace Pro was upgraded to the latest Ace Pro 2.
Develop mini camera
Insta360 also has a mini camera series—the GO series, which enjoys immense popularity in Asia, even surpassing the popularity of panoramic cameras at one point. From GO to GO Ultra, this series has been updated five times (GO, GO 2, GO 3, GO 3S, GO Ultra). As a mini camera, it breaks through to support 4K ultra-high-definition resolution, completely freeing up your hands in daily vlogs and parent-child interaction scenarios, and enabling diverse creative perspectives such as POV first-person view.
The first, second, and third generations of the GO series were launched in August 2019, March 2021, and June 2023, respectively, with the GO 3S launched in June 2024. During the reporting period, sales revenue from the Insta360 GO series was RMB 237.9728 million, RMB 127.2287 million, RMB 462.1441 million, and RMB 343.2856 million, respectively, accounting for 18.141 TP3T, 6.331 TP3T, 12.871 TP3T, and 14.261 TP3T of the company's total sales revenue.
The Insta360 camera has captured the attention of camera and sports enthusiasts primarily due to its five core advantages:
- Overwhelmingly high image quality
- Personalized and diverse camera lineup
- Professional-grade user experience with attention to detail
- Reliability and durability in extreme environments
- Fully functional post-production software APP
Entering the capital market
On June 11, 2025, Insta360 was officially listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, reaching a market capitalization of RMB 74.185 billion. This milestone clearly demonstrates that Insta360 did not retreat in the face of competition from GoPro or DJI. Instead, by deeply understanding user needs and delivering exceptionally intuitive, user-friendly product designs, Insta360 has truly forged its own path in the industry.
From the three best-selling products—X5, GO Ultra, and Ace Pro 2Taken as a whole, it’s fair to say that Insta360 has developed a comprehensive understanding of—and solutions for—the full spectrum of action camera user needs. Even if you’re not an extreme sports enthusiast and simply want to document everyday life or shoot vlogs, there’s an Insta360 product designed to fit your use case perfectly.
In fact, Insta360's action cameras are generally priced slightly higher than GoPro and DJI, and they haven't adopted the traditional "low-price strategy." Instead, they rely on their simple and easy-to-use features to make users willing to pay for more functions and higher specifications.
I've been using action cameras since the GoPro HERO 6, and I own dozens of cameras from the three manufacturers combined. But the ones I've used the longest and am most comfortable with are Insta360 products. In terms of cost-effectiveness, calculated by dividing the price by the number of days of use, Insta360 actually offers the best value.
1. Background of the Founding
- In 2015, founder JK officially established Insta360 in Shenzhen.
JK demonstrated exceptional talent during her university years. She keenly observed the pain points of panoramic cameras at the time, such as "slow transmission, difficulty in sharing, and poor user experience," and therefore decided to redefine the way images are recorded—allowing anyone to easily capture and share the world.
2. Product Breakthrough: Driving Market Innovation
- Nano:The starting point for entering a global perspective
In 2016, Insta360 Nano was launched, which is plug-and-play and solves the problem of transmitting panoramic videos. - ONE X series (later renamed X series)
Launched in 2018, the ONE X gained widespread recognition for its innovative and stunning imaging technology: it features pre-capture framing, FlowState image stabilization, and an invisible selfie stick.
From then on, Insta360 = panoramic camera. - GO series
In 2019, the GO series was launched, a mini camera dedicated to Vlogging, enabling diverse creative shooting from a first-person perspective. The upgraded GO Ultra supports 4K resolution. - Ace series
Launched in 2023, the Ace series focuses on sports and vlog shooting. Through wind noise reduction, motion data display, and lens development in collaboration with Leica, the action cameras support ultra-high 8K image quality.
3. Globalization Strategy: Going Global from Day One
- Unlike most brands, Insta360 targeted the global market from its early days and did not rely on price wars.
- Building brand culture through social media content—like the video of "Grandpa Bee" filming with an Insta360 camera while biting a bee, which garnered 860 million views and became a phenomenon. Essentially, the brand wasn't spoken, but rather "created" by users.
4. Core Technology: The Iron Triangle of Hardware × Software × Algorithm
- R&D investment ratio exceeds 13%
- Holding 900+ patents
- The technology spans key areas such as AI imaging, panoramic stitching, and FlowState image stabilization.
- Simultaneously, we are building a complete content creation ecosystem: camera + app post-production tools + global content community, comprehensively improving user creation efficiency.
5. Brand Achievement
- No.1 in global market share for panoramic cameras
- Top two in global market share of action cameras
- Listed on the A-share market in 2025, with a market capitalization exceeding 70 billion RMB.
6. Future Vision: Driving the Next Era of Imaging with AI
Insta360 is actively exploring the possibilities of AI and imaging, such as launching the panoramic drone Antigravity to fill market gaps and open up new dimensions of creation.
The brand's core spirit, Think Bold, encourages users and employees to constantly push the boundaries of imagination, empowering everyone to bravely record and share the world.
Conclusion
Regardless of the brand of action camera, the true test is always the moment the shutter is pressed.
Looking back over the past decade, Insta360 has grown from a small startup studio with just six employees into a benchmark brand in the imaging technology industry. Its success has never hinged on a single technological breakthrough or capital backing, but rather on a deep understanding of real user needs—and a unique ability to strip away complexity and transform advanced technology into products that are accessible and easy for everyone to use.
While Insta360's story seems inspiring and successful, the hard work behind it is probably only known to the engineers who developed the product and the marketing team who brought it to market. As users, everyone is actually very demanding—everyone's needs correspond to three different solutions from Insta360, DJI, and GoPro, and it's inevitable to compare prices and features before making a purchase decision.
If you're looking to buy an action camera, we recommend purchasing it directly from the brand's official website: for example, at... Insta360 website Purchases not only come with a one-year free warranty, but also often include practical accessories. These details are key reasons why they have won the trust of users in the competition.
Ultimately, Insta360 has always been a brand centered on imaging, user-oriented, and consistently bold in innovation. Whether you're an adventurer who loves extreme sports or a lifestyle enthusiast who loves recording everyday vlogs, every Insta360 product can bring you a high-quality, easy-to-use, and imaginative shooting experience.
