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Iris Deng

Chinese action camera maker Insta360 is deepening its US footprint with a flagship store opening in New York as it navigates escalating price competition with DJI and industry-wide memory cost pressures.
The Chinese GoPro rival was slated to plant its flag in the heart of Times Square with its first flagship retail store in the US on Saturday, a marquee launch as the firm looked to “leap to the next stage of growth”, co-founder Max Richter said.
“The US market plays a very important role for us and has great potential both in terms of outdoor sports and the creator economy,” Richter said in an interview on Tuesday in Shenzhen, where Insta360 is based.
The company was also eyeing another bricks-and-mortar flagship in Europe later this year, likely in Munich or Amsterdam, following the New York launch and its August opening in Tokyo, bringing its self-operated overseas retail presence to three stores by the end of 2026, according to Richter.
Based on feedback from its initial three stores, Insta360 may accelerate its global offline roll-out in 2027 and explore “store-in-store” collaborations with local retail partners, Richter added.
Founded in 2015, Insta360 gained early overseas traction as a GoPro disrupter with its 360-degree cameras, propelled by viral videos made with its cameras. Richter attributed the rise of Insta360 to a new wave of content creators who prioritised ease of creating shareable videos over the use of traditional technology.
The company had shipped a total of 10 million cameras globally, according to Richter.

Insta360 is now looking to gain more ground in a fast-growing smart camera market, driven by social media content creation demand globally.
DJI dominated the global handheld smart camera market, according to data released by IDC in June, which covered action cameras, gimbals and panoramic cameras. DJI held a 65 per cent share in the first quarter of 2026, followed by Insta360’s 22 per cent share.
However, Insta360’s camera shipments jumped 66 per cent year on year, outstripping DJI’s 38 per cent growth. Insta360 remained the top player in the global 360-degree camera category with a 68 per cent share.
Insta360’s overseas retail expansion also came amid an intensifying price war with its crosstown rival DJI in the China market, a full-fledged competition spanning cameras to drones.
“We don’t want to be in a competition where we only compete on price,” Richter said. “Escaping [price] competition with innovation is even more important for us.”
Apart from the brutal price competition, soaring memory chip prices are weighing heavily on Insta360’s bottom line.
Insta360, officially trading as Arashi Vision on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-like Star Market, reported a 94 per cent drop in first-half net profit, despite revenue climbing 50 per cent.




The company cited rising component costs as the primary culprit, as it spent nearly 2 billion yuan (US$298.4 million) on “strategic procurement” of memory chips.
A similar scale of expenditure was expected to be “unavoidable” in the coming quarters, and it remained unclear when the memory crisis would ease, Richter said.
“At the same time, we don’t want to compromise our product research and development, [which] remains our number one priority,” Richter said, adding that the firm would focus on becoming more efficient in other areas.
Research and development expenditure soared nearly 80 per cent in the first six months of 2026, as Insta360 invested in the development of new products including its Luna Ultra dual-lens vlogging camera, launched in June to take on DJI’s Osmo Pocket 4P.
Insta360’s high-stakes US push must also navigate an increasingly complicated geopolitical climate. Tightened scrutiny from the US Federal Communications Commission barred DJI from selling any new products in America, locking the major drone and camera maker out of the market and leaving a potential void for players like Insta360.
While Richter confirmed that Insta360 currently faced no restrictions on selling products in the US, he pushed back against viewing its rival’s regulatory setback as a commercial windfall.
“We didn’t want it to happen like this,” Richter said. “For us, it’s not the main motivation.”


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Action camera maker Insta360 is opening a New York City flagship as it navigates price wars with DJI, soaring memory costs.


China’s GoPro rival Insta360 opens first US flagship store in New York’s Times Square

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Action camera maker Insta360 is opening a New York City flagship as it navigates price wars with DJI, soaring memory costs.

Action camera maker Insta360 is opening a New York City flagship as it navigates price wars with DJI, soaring memory costs.