Reaching for high skies with drones

An exhibitor flies a drone at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the United States, on Jan 6, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese startup sets sights on fast-growing market with huge aspirations

An amateur photographer in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, drew crowds when he used a drone mini-helicopter made by China's DJI Technology Co to capture images of historic church steeples and other sights.

"I got some amazing photos with it," said Scott Richardson, a voice teacher who bought DJI's four-rotor Phantom 2 Vision+ model in May. "With a drone, you can hover three feet above the steeple and get a picture you cannot get any other way."

Founded in 2009 by an engineer with a childhood love of radio-controlled model planes, DJI has become the world's biggest supplier of civilian drones－possibly the first Chinese company to achieve that status in any consumer industry.

It has grown from 20 employees to a workforce of 2,800, including Chinese, Americans and South Koreans at its headquarters in the southern city of Shenzhen and at outposts in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Frankfurt, Germany.

"It is really amazing what they have managed to do," said industry analyst Maryanna Saenko of Lux Research Inc in Boston.

From the start, DJI was "very polished, had just the right capabilities and the right price point"－less than $1,000 when most rivals cost at least $5,000, Saenko said. "They hit the sweet spot."

DJI's latest model, the Inspire 1, released in November, carries a camera that can send live video to a smartphone, with a global positioning system to compensate for wind and hold it still in midair.

The company is part of an emerging wave of Chinese startups in fields such as robotics, clean energy and telecommunications. The Chinese government hopes to transform the country from the world's low-wage factory into a creator of profitable technology.