On April 27, Shenzhen-based drone maker DJI said on its website that it was reassessing compliance requirements in different jurisdictions internally. During this review, DJI will suspend all operations in Russia and Ukraine. The Company is engaging with customers, partners and other stakeholders regarding the suspension of business operations in the affected areas.
Source: DJI official website
The reason why DJI suddenly announced the suspension of all russian and Ukrainian operations began with the Russo-Ukrainian War. As a consumer-grade civilian drone, DJI may not have thought that it could one day be used in military operations.
In the Russo-Ukrainian War, civilian UAVs were small at low altitudes and low speeds, and their flight characteristics were very similar to those of birds, and radar was generally difficult to detect. The point is that compared with military drones, its cost is really too low, even if the loss of ten or eight is not a big problem. The high-definition camera of the drone provides great convenience for street fighting.
Source: DJI official website
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has mobilized kiev citizens with drones to join the battle with Russia and use drones to monitor the Russian army.
In the photos released by the deputy prime minister of Ukraine, we can see that most of the latest civilian drones purchased by Ukraine are DJI Mavic 3.
The DJI Mavic 3 comes with a special Explorer mode that allows the aircraft to zoom in on the lens magnification up to 28x. This feature can be used to locate Russian troops and guide mortar attacks, making the Mavic 3 the perfect spy drone.
Secondly, DJI can also be used as a miniature bombdrop, a warhead, a badminton ball and a remote control device constitute a miniature aerial bomb, although the power is not large, but the damage is not small. Prior to this, the Ukrainian territorial defense forces had developed a kind of incendiary UAV. Using a DJI Inspire 1 as a flying platform, placing a highly flammable cocktail at its bottom, it is positioned to target the attack target by aerial aerial vehicle gimbal camera overhead.
DJI's Cloud Sentry Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Monitoring System (AEROSCOPE) can receive different standards of DJI drone broadcast signals to monitor drones flying in specific areas.
Image source: Cloud whistle instruction manual
How cloud whistles work: Transfer data to DJI's public servers (hosted by Amazon's AWS), to the drone owner's private cloud, or even to an offline server for security.
In DJI's official product description, the cloud sentry system was originally manufactured to safeguard national security and the interests of the public and prevent criminals from using DJI drones to endanger public safety. However, Russia and Ukraine have used a large number of DJI UAVs for artillery shooting and reconnaissance.
According to Ukrainian media reports, the Russian military used the cloud sentry system to detect the positioning of drones and operators in the hands of the Ukrainian army, thus gaining the advantage of reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance.
While both sides were using the cloud sentry function in this war, the cloud whistle function on the Ukrainian side of the military inexplicably failed. As a result, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Fedorov issued an open letter on Twitter accusing DJI of side with Russia. At the same time, DJI is required to turn on the cloud whistle function for Ukrainian users and ban all DJI products that run in Ukraine, but are not purchased and activated in Ukraine.
In the face of the Ukrainian vice premier's attack, DJI was helpless and said that DJI's unilateral opening to Russia is nonsense, DJI's civilian drones can not directly guide missiles, and Russia does not need to rely on the functions provided by DJI to trace the operator's location.
In addition, DJI said that it has never changed the cloud whistle system in any form in Ukraine, and there are still many Ukrainian users running cloud whistles. As for the device in question, it may be related to the disconnection of the network and power.
Recently, the social media accounts of DJI and its global partners have been attacked by a coordinated water army, slandering DJI for misconduct in the international situation, which has caused trouble to the social media operations of many parties.
On April 21, DJI released a statement on the military use of drones on its official website, reiterating its position that DJI's products are designed to improve people's lives and benefit the world, and DJI absolutely condemns any use of its products to cause harm. DJI only produces civilian products and is not designed for military applications.
Source: DJI official website Statement on the military use of drones
Regarding DJI's suspension of all business in Russia and Ukraine, Khotan, DJI's public relations director, said: "We are conducting a compliance risk review of our global business, which is a self-inspection of our own compliance in accordance with the requirements of various national laws and regulations, including those inherent in China's export control law. During the review period, DJI will temporarily suspend all commercial activities in Russia and Ukraine. ”
Source: DJI's Public Relations Director Xie Khotan's Weibo
Founded in 2006 by Wang Tao, a graduate of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, DJI and others, although not the first to do drones, but after years of development, it has become a giant in the field of civil drones, occupying the largest market share.
According to the data of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, in 2020, DJI has occupied more than 80% of the market share in the global UAV market, and its market share in China has reached more than 70%, ranking first among the world's civil UAV companies.
With a super high market share, DJI's revenue is also rising, with sales reaching 26 billion yuan in 2020, and DJI's board of directors has predicted that DJI's revenue will reach 170 billion yuan in 2022. As a giant in the drone industry, DJI's prospects are also optimistic about the capital market, and the valuation is very high.
In the "2020 China Unicorn List TOP100" released by Ai Media Consulting, DJI ranked seventh with a valuation of 166 billion yuan.
Source: Web Content Synthesis