Comment by palata
13 days ago
> Western drone companies haven't bothered competing in the consumer space
This is factually wrong. Most drone companies have tried in the consumer space before pivoting towards the military. The military has been more and more present since around 2019, and most Western drone companies have pivoted to the military since Ukraine. Not because it's more profitable, but really because they failed in the consumer space.
Also the military makes it easier for Western companies because DJI cannot compete (obviously). But I am absolutely convinced that DJI is better at making military drones ("micro aerial vehicles") than the West.
Military is 100x more profitable than consumer. It isn’t clear they DJI is even making money since all I can find on a Google search is them bragging about revenue. If they made $3.83b in revenue in 2021, what were their expenses on that (or better yet, what is the break down of hardware/assembly costs vs. R&D costs if they aren't profitable yet)?
You do realize that the Western drone companies are failing at making good military drones, do you? Have you seen what Ukraine had to say about it?
I don't even want to talk about DJI not being profitable. That's preposterous. It's like if I was claiming that Apple is state-subsidized and not profitable.