The archive · Hardware & Devices · Product decision · 2015–2026
Insta360's 360-camera bet: six years global #1, STAR IPO closed +274% at ¥71B
A 23-year-old's bet that 360 video could go mainstream made Insta360 the global category leader; its June 2025 STAR IPO opened +285% and closed worth ¥70.98B.
Insta360（影石创新 / Arashi Vision）
What the business is
Insta360 builds consumer and professional 360/panoramic cameras (X, GO, Ace series), action cams and, since 2025, drones, selling in 200+ countries through its own store plus Apple Store and Best Buy.
Starting capital：IPO raised ¥1.938 billion (~US$267M) at ¥47.27 per share on 2025-06-11; company had earlier attracted IDG Capital and Qiming Venture Partners as early investors.
How it started
Liu Jingkang, born in 1991 in Zhongshan, studied software engineering at Nanjing University and founded Insta360 in 2015 with his student-era team, betting on VR and panoramic imaging: cameras that record the whole scene, with AI stitching and 'shoot first, frame later' software, could win where incumbents treated 360 as a niche.
What happened
Revenue compounded 65.25% a year, from ¥2.04B (2022) to ¥3.64B (2023) to ¥5.57B (2024), with ¥946M net profit (excl. non-recurring) in 2024; Q1 2025 revenue was ¥1.36B, +40.7% YoY. Frost & Sullivan ranked Insta360 the global consumer panoramic-camera leader for six straight years (67.2% share in 2023, ~81.7% in 2024) and #2 in action cameras. On 2025-06-11 it listed on Shanghai's STAR Market (688775.SH), opening +285% at ¥182 and closing +274.44% at a ¥70.98B market cap after raising ¥1.94B.
How it ended up
Still scaling: by March 2026 a CCTV founder interview put its global 360-camera share above 85% and revenue near ¥10B; it entered the drone market in 2025, and after winning a US ITC 337 patent case at the start of 2026, it open-sourced part of its action-camera patents.
Background
Insta360 (影石创新) is a Shenzhen-headquartered camera company founded in 2015 by Liu Jingkang, then a 23-year-old Nanjing University student. Its bet: consumer cameras that capture the full 360-degree scene, with in-camera AI stitching and a 'shoot first, frame later' workflow, could become a mainstream category — even though GoPro dominated action cameras and 360 was treated as a niche.
Frost & Sullivan ranked it the global consumer panoramic-camera leader for six consecutive years, with 67.2% share in 2023 and roughly 81.7% in 2024; revenue compounded at 65.25% a year to ¥5.57B in 2024. On 2025-06-11 it listed on Shanghai's STAR Market (688775.SH): the stock opened +285% at ¥182 and closed +274.44%, valuing the company at ¥70.98B (~US$9.8B) after the year's largest STAR raise, ¥1.94B.
The company is still scaling: by a March 2026 CCTV interview, global 360-camera share was above 85% and revenue was approaching ¥10B, with expansion into drones, AI imaging and robot vision, products in 200+ countries, and 5M+ overseas social followers. In early 2026 it won a US ITC 337 patent case against GoPro and open-sourced part of its action-camera patents.
What has to be true
- Choosing 360 capture, where GoPro and Ricoh had weak software, let a small Chinese startup own a category instead of fighting the action-cam leader head-on.
- In-camera AI stitching and 'shoot first, frame later' turned a hardware product into a software experience, a moat competitors could not copy overnight.
- Building a global creator community (5M+ social followers, 5B+ UGC views) gave the brand free distribution and product feedback long before the IPO.
- Relentless product cadence (X, GO, Ace series) plus retail expansion into Apple Store and Best Buy turned niche 360 cameras into a ¥5.6B-revenue business.
What can be applied
Win a category incumbents dismiss with software-hardware integration and a creator community, use that brand and distribution to enter adjacent categories, and turn patent wins into openness.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02, Insta360 is live and scaling: still the global leader in 360 cameras (85%+ share per a March 2026 founder interview), revenue approaching ¥10B, and expanding into drones, AI imaging and robot vision, with products in 200+ countries and 10,000+ retail doors. In early 2026 it won a US ITC 337 patent case against GoPro and chose to open-source part of its action-camera patents rather than keep suing.
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