Produced by: Sina Technology
Compiled by: Tours
When other Chinese technology companies are still occasionally labeled as "plagiarism", Dajiang Innovation has proved to the world that Chinese start-ups have the ability to create a global original brand with countless loyal fans.
Every summer, DJI, the world's largest UAV manufacturer, holds a "RoboMaster" in Shenzhen. Hundreds of college students from China, Japan, the United States and other places, with robots of their own design (about the size of lawn mowers), equipped with plastic bullets, staged robot wars in front of countless excited and cheering fans.
Robot Master Competition is the creativity of Wang Tao, the founder and CEO of Dajiang Innovation. Over the years, Wang Tao has been hoping to develop the Robot Masters into a unique culture advocating engineering - at the same time, stimulating the market demand of the company's products. In addition to competition activities, mecha masters have also spawned a lot of peripherals, such as TV animated short plays, reality shows, event documentaries and comic series. Since last year, Dajiang Innovation has also launched a consumer oriented DIY kit for small combat robots, called "Robot Master S1".
To the outside world, Wang Tao did not actually promote mecha masters by himself. Among the CEOs of many technology companies, he may be the most low-key one. During the 14 years when he was the leader of innovation in Xinjiang and unloaded his real power, he almost avoided all media interviews. For the purpose of writing this report, we made two appointments for interviews, and he stood us up twice, causing his spokesman to repeatedly apologize, explaining that he has always been unreasonable. In fact, there has been a rumor in Dajiang Innovation's press office that Wang Tao may never be interviewed by reporters again.
The world's first billionaire in the drone industry likes to live in seclusion and live in seclusion, but he does not play cards according to common sense. Dajiang's innovative, inexpensive and easy to operate UAVs have already occupied the sky above us, taking vivid images and recording our world. The company continues to improve its products, and the tight rhythm makes competitors tremble. Photographers, film producers and drone enthusiasts are loyal to Dajiang's innovation and obsessed with every innovation. When other Chinese technology companies are still occasionally labeled as "plagiarism", Dajiang Innovation has proved to the world that Chinese start-ups have the ability to create a global original brand with countless loyal fans.
Even so, the company's future suddenly seems to be erratic. The agreed listing did not happen, but the headline report recording the internal fraud scandal did not arrive. It is said that this scandal has cost Dajiang Innovation nearly 150 million dollars.
Some problems stem from the unshakable position of Dajiang Innovation in the UAV market. America's concern about China's influence, especially any concern about computer influence, naturally affects the stable supply of UAVs. In this industry, the company spared no effort to improve its products and reduce its prices, resulting in low profits for consumer and enterprise UAVs in the market, so that Wang Tao himself had no choice but to expand his camera and robot business, and the most controversial, to provide surveillance UAVs for large companies and government agencies. A former employee of the company summed up this and said: "He (Wang Tao) launched a vicious competition, and now he is reaping the consequences."
When he founded Dajiang Innovation in 2006, Wang Tao was still a college student studying in Hong Kong, developing parts for the prototype of a remote controlled helicopter. His tutor is Li Zexiang, a famous Chinese researcher. Under the guidance of Li Zexiang, he and another student developed a tracking system for the equipment. In 2009, the technology developed by them has been proved to be able to remotely control unmanned helicopters to bypass Mount Everest. This technology can safely cope with high winds and high altitude conditions.
After tasting the benefits, Wang Tao began to hire young engineers to develop engines, speed controllers, airframes and radio modules. The final product was the UAV we are now familiar with. Early UAV enthusiasts often need to weld components themselves, spend a lot of time on the forum to study the working principle, and install and reinstall complex software over and over again. Dajiang Innovation has successfully saved everyone all the trouble and provided out of the box products.
In 2015, Dajiang innovatively released Dajiang Genie 3, overturning the drone market at one fell swoop. At that time, Wang Tao visited manufacturing experts in Shenzhen to build factories that can produce key parts of UAVs. Dajiang Genie 3 has a built-in camera, which can rotate and transmit the video to the screen held by the operator. "This is a watershed," said Ryan Tong, a former president of Dajiang Innovation. "They make everything so simple. As a photographer and Chinese American, I am very proud."
The popularity of Dajiang Genie 3, coupled with the ceaseless release of successor equipment by Dajiang Innovation - Dajiang Genie 3 SE, Dajiang Genie 4, Dajiang Genie 4 Professional V2.0 - eliminated a large number of competitors of the company, especially those in the United States. 3D Robotics in Berkeley, California, is also an early participant in the amateur UAV market. In the past ten years, the company raised 170 million dollars, but finally had to give up UAV manufacturing and develop software suitable for Dajiang UAV. GoPro, a sports camera manufacturer, thought it could enter the drone industry, and finally chose to retreat in 2018. (Last year, Dajiang Innovation entered the industry of Go and Pro and released a similar product, "Lingmou Sports Camera".) According to the data of Drone Industry Insights UG, Dajiang Innovation accounts for 77% of UAV sales in the US market. No other competitor has a market share of more than 4%.
Amateur UAV market share in the United States Other executives may use this advantage to boast. But Wang Tao is not such a person. He is thin and likes to wear a newsboy hat and round glasses with full personality. Wang Tao has not been interviewed since 2016. Those who have close contact with him (including more than 20 in-service and outgoing employees, who require anonymity to protect their working prospects in the drone industry) said that Wang Tao was particularly obsessed with engineering design, but almost uninterested in other things. They also said that his office was full of things he liked - a motorcycle, a model plane, a huge coffee table that looked like a wood fossil. His favorite movie is "Iron Fist" starring Hugh Jackman in 2011, which is also related to robot fighting. A former employee said that Wang Tao "dreams that one day robots can do all kinds of things".
The recruitment standards of Dajiang Innovation are notoriously strict. In order to pass the personality test of the company, the employees asked their friends who have already joined the company to give advice on how to choose to make the answer look more rational than emotional. People who have participated in personality tests say that the real trap is whether Leonardo da Vinci is a good example, because he is both an artist and an engineer. Those who show enough engineering inclination will eventually face a hands-on challenge: welding UAV components. Recently, even those applying for sales and marketing need to complete this challenge.
On the job employees cannot escape this test. The competitive culture of innovation in Dajiang is well known. The company divides its employees into different teams to compete with each other to develop new products. The winning team's creativity is expected to go to the market; The failed team will assist the winning team to achieve their product launch goals. Employees also often need to score each other in the questionnaire and evaluate the performance of other departments. Later, these data will be used to help determine the salary level of employees. In addition, there are more arbitrary factors. Wang Tao once threatened to deduct the salary of the public relations director because he received too much media attention.
Exterior view of Shenzhen flagship store of Dajiang Innovation To some extent, the high intensity culture within Dajiang Innovation echoes the characteristics of Shenzhen, the headquarters of the company. In Shenzhen, even though the outbreak of the epidemic may affect the delivery of key raw materials, the company's factories are still roaring. People from all over China have flocked to this city with a population of 13 million to try to make their mark in the science and technology industry. Wang Tao is familiar with the mystery and provides young engineers with full freedom and sense of responsibility. As a former senior executive of the company said, "Wang Tao only cares about technology. He hopes to have the best young engineers and talents, is willing to roll up his sleeves and work hard, and is willing to explore new ways to solve problems." One consequence of this trend is the team infighting and low morale of employees who cannot keep pace. Dajiang Innovation declined to comment.
Like many enterprises, two people familiar with the strategy said that Dajiang Innovation also secretly took "black action", that is, tactics used to attack competitors or beautify its own image. Once, the company's agent created 50 fake accounts and maliciously published on a news forum to slander competitors Yihang Comments from. The forum moderator noticed that all comments came from an IP address in Shenzhen and pointed to Dajiang Innovation. So he asked the company to stop screen brushing. The company continued to instruct the sailors not to stop the attack, but used software to hide the IP location. It is said that these sailors also tried to launch similar attacks on YouTube, but were accused of slandering the products of another competitor, Haoxiang. Dajiang Innovation declined to comment.
Sometimes Wang Tao's hostility will be transferred to the innovative consumers of Dajiang. The company's customer service is notoriously poor. A former employee said that the senior management was personally involved in the customer complaint We exchanged emails with consumers, repeatedly used flight data to refute the cause of the crash, and attempted to cancel the refund. According to the former employee, Wang Tao is particularly disgusted Apple This kind of dealer, because they provide unconditional refunds, and vent his dissatisfaction in the email to executives. Dajiang Innovation declined to comment.
Dajiang Innovation's factory is about 20 minutes' drive from the company headquarters. The outside of the factory looks like other electronic factories, square and plain. But inside, there are various levels of automated assembly lines and test lines. Robots put UAVs together, and then start these aircraft; Hundreds of UAVs take off automatically, perform a series of drills within two minutes, then land and continue to move along the production line. "In the past, there were more workers on the production line than robots. Slowly, robots replaced humans," said Mario Rebello, former vice president of North America of Dajiang Innovation. Many robots on the production line are produced by the company itself to perform highly specialized operations.
These expensive assembly lines allow companies to keep up with engineers' innovations. Dajiang Innovation can now produce industrial UAVs, which can be used to survey land, spray pesticides on farms, and even collect biological samples (Snotbots) from whales' blowholes.
In 2018, the media reported that Dajiang Innovation Plan raised hundreds of millions of dollars before listing. The financing ended in vain because the company fired dozens of employees, who were accused of overstating the price of parts for personal gain. According to the company's statement, this fraud caused Dajiang Innovation to lose about 150 million dollars. The former employee disclosed that the transfer and transaction of parts and components originated from internal confusion and the financial reporting system that did not meet the audit requirements. Dajiang Innovation made some response to this in a statement issued at that time. The company said: "Mature companies have perfect training, control and management agreements to avoid these problems. Dajiang Innovation is still trying to overcome many challenges on the way to achieve this goal."
Luo Zhenhua, president of Dajiang Innovation, said that we are not in a hurry to go public. "After listing, we may encounter some restrictions. Investors will pay more attention to profits. But we hope to avoid these restrictions and concentrate on what we love," he said. The company is building a monument for these enthusiasm and Wang Tao's ambition: 194 meter high twin towers, connected by the middle overpass, a multi-storey UAV test area, and the first floor is the product exhibition center and robot arena.
Although not so recommended - and illegal in most places - in fact, Dajiang's innovative UAV can fly at an altitude of 4 miles (about 6437 meters). Dajiang Chuangxin said that the company does not have a database of such specific information and can only provide general information about equipment near the location.
Dajiang's innovative UAV traffic controller (UTC) can match the unique identification number of the UAV (the identification number is bound to the user's mobile phone) with various sensors (GPS, barometer, gyroscope, compass, etc.). After development, Dajiang Innovation handed over the system to relevant departments in the form of "white label products", so that the latter could name the products as needed, and also avoid external concerns about cooperation between the company and the government. Some former employees thought that the company had begun to study this system before 2016, and others thought that it was only after a series of UAV accidents in 2017 that the company began to develop the system. Luo Zhenhua refused to comment, saying only that he knew nothing about the events in 2016.
Fast forward to 2020, the company is now selling a tracking system similar to the one developed before, called "AeroScope". This system allows airports, nuclear power plants and other confidential locations to purchase a device that can scan the airspace within about 30 miles and detect drones within a few seconds. In 2015, Dajiang Innovation hired Brendan Schulman to assist in responding to the regulatory regulations and litigation related to this emerging technology. Schulman, a lawyer graduated from Harvard University, is a hero in the hearts of countless drone enthusiasts. He defended UAV operators in the first case of the Federal Aviation Administration v. UAV operators. Later, Schulman, as the vice president of policy and legal affairs, devoted most of his time to convincing people that Dajiang Innovation did not monitor everyone. "Now, we must first deal with people's doubts, international political issues and other things beyond our control," he said.
In the United States, the Ministry of the Interior, which uses drones for wildlife protection and infrastructure inspection, said at the end of last year that more than 800 Chinese drones would be retired. In response, Dajiang Innovation said in a statement: "This is a political action to restrict the country of origin in the name of network security.". The Los Angeles Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office said in a statement that it "has reason to believe" that Dajiang Innovation is providing important infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government. (In a public statement, Dajiang Chuangxin said that the contents of the announcement were "inconsistent with the facts and misleading".)
Schulman said that he agreed with the news from the Department of Homeland Security and also suggested that consumers encrypt the communication messages between the UAV and the remote controller. He said: "While our technology is rapidly and widely popularized, we also need to improve data security protection." Dajiang Innovation has always claimed that the company pays more attention to data security than other Chinese competitors, and is willing to sell its own security technology to prove this. Schulman said that the company is now providing a technology called "local data model". In this mode, the UAV will not exchange data with the Internet during flight; There are other technologies that can completely retain data within companies or governments.
Nevertheless, the concern about Dajiang UAV did not affect the growth of the company's customer base. Flymotion is a Florida based UAV service company. Ryan English, CEO of the company, said that the company was assisting dozens of police stations with its own equipment. "Dajiang Innovation has a global market," said Yingolishi. "One of their advantages is the super high cost performance."
Although such companies as GoPro and 3D Robotics have given up competing with Wang Tao's companies in the consumer market, Dajiang Innovation still faces various challenges, including patent lawsuits initiated by American enterprises, and a large number of emerging competitors who are trying to build American made UAVs. For example, Impossible Aerospace, which produces UAVs at its Santa Clara plant in California. Spencer Gore, the founder of the company, was once Tesla Battery engineer. Unlike Dajiang UAV, which uses independent battery packs, Gore's idea is that the whole UAV body is a battery pack. This concept draws on the design of Tesla - the chassis of Tesla electric vehicles is composed of huge battery packs. This design can reduce the center of gravity and improve the handling. According to Gore's idea, the UAV using the battery pack as the fuselage can greatly improve the endurance. Impossible UAVs can fly for 2 hours continuously, while similar Dajiang UAVs can only fly for 30 minutes.
Impossible's first UAV, the US-1, began to be delivered to a company last year. The company uses these drones to detect oil and gas leaks from oil wells in West Texas. Gore believes that the police station and fire department will eventually become the largest initial market of the company, because UAVs with super long endurance can continue to wander around the scene of crime or fire without too much attention from operators. "There are 18000 municipal police stations and 32000 fire departments in the United States, of which only more than 60 departments can afford helicopters," he said
However, a rather puzzling problem Impossible is that the equipment specifications required in the procurement bidding documents given by the police and fire departments can be basically met only by the innovative products of Dajiang. For example, Gore gave an example. He took out a proposal from the Kansas Highway Patrol, which listed the required UAV attributes, such as flight time, camera and payload. These data are exactly the same as the longitude and latitude of Dajiang M210. "If the United States wants to regain its competitive advantage in the field of robots and unmanned aerial vehicles, one of the most basic measures to quickly start our industrial base is to award government contracts to American enterprises or at least give American enterprises the opportunity to compete," Gore said, "About 1000 police stations can get the grant from the Ministry of Homeland Security, which is used to purchase the Dajiang UAV made in China. We are fattening China's future major contractors with our own federal funds."
In order to give Impossible a chance to bid for the procurement contract, Gore would visit the police station and the fire department one by one to persuade them to modify the procurement tender. He also hired several former policemen as his part-time sales staff. In Washington, Dajiang Innovation also began to increase its lobbying investment. In the third quarter of last year, the lobbying expenditure reached a record high of 200000 dollars. At the same time, it is also trying to avoid repeating Huawei's experience. "The lobbyist for innovation in Xinjiang is not simple," Gore said.
According to the latest research of Bard College, at present, institutions in 50 states in the United States are using UAVs, 90% of which are from Dajiang Innovation. Murphy acknowledged that if the American UAV manufacturer wants to compete with Xinjiang in innovation, it may not be possible without subsidies.
Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-03-26/dji-s-drone-supremacy-comes-at-a-price
By Blake Schmidt and Ashlee Vance
