Popular action camera “Insta360” smells the next innovation | Forbes JAPAN Official Site (Forbes Japan)

Among action cameras, “Insta360” is popular among active creators, with a wide range of products such as cameras that can shoot and edit in 360 degrees in all directions. In a fiercely competitive genre with competitors such as GoPro, DJI, and Sony, it is demonstrating its own individuality.

Insta360 released the smartphone gimbal “Flow” in March, giving fresh surprises and possibilities to an item that was thought to have already evolved (?). JK Liu, who heads the company, said, “Gimbals never met the needs of users.”

Since founding the high-tech venture “Shenzhen Arashi Vision” in Shenzhen in 2014, Liu has produced a succession of innovative products such as VR cameras for professionals, 360-degree cameras for consumers, and action cameras. have announced. Currently, the company’s product name “Insta360” has grown to be sold in more than 200 countries and regions around the world. Liu’s manufacturing makes us feel a different perspective and idea from other companies. We talked with him about how he started his business, how he came up with the idea for product development, and what his future goals are.

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Start is not an action camera

Forbes JAPAN (F): You started your business in 2014 while you were still in college.

Liu Jingkang (JK):Entrepreneurship can achieve “three things”. The first is to make money. Second, you are free to do whatever you want. Third, we can contribute to society. That’s why it’s more interesting to be an entrepreneur than to be an ordinary company employee. That’s what I thought.

F:What you like, that leads to action cameras. Did you start your business with the idea of ​​360-degree shooting and editing from that time?

JK LiuInsta360 CEO | Born in 1991. He founded Shenzhen Arashi Vision (now Insta360) in 2014 while studying at Nanjing University. The company moved to Shenzhen, and in 2016, it launched the “Insta360 Nano” equipped with a omnidirectional camera and became a notable company. In 2021, he was selected as one of the “40 business elites under the age of 40 in China in 2021” in the Chinese version of “Fortune”. He loves Japan so much that he often visits Japan for product testing.

JK:My major in college was software development. It all started with being involved in school concerts and events. How can you record the atmosphere of the event as it is? When shooting with a single-lens reflex camera, the landscape is recorded flat within the angle of view. When I was looking for an alternative, I happened to come across a camera capable of 360-degree photography on an overseas website. I thought that using a camera like this would allow me to convey the feeling of being there as it is, so I developed it.

F:The ability to edit 360-degree shots later attracted attention at the time. Around 2018, there was a promotion (for the ONE X series) in which the camera was “thrown” at people jumping on a skateboard and taken. I was.

The latest “Insta360”. As long as you take a full sphere, you can edit it as you wish later. In addition, it can be said that the “invisible selfie stick” that does not care about reflection is an invention of Insta360. 360-degree cameras continue to evolve.

JK:Our first product was a 360-degree sphere, but it wasn’t an action camera. As the number of users who play sports increased, it evolved into its current form. What makes users want to use cameras is that they can edit what they record from any angle they want, take it out as a flat material, and easily share it on social media. We developed it specifically for this purpose.