Author | Gao LinglangEditor | Wang GefaImage from the company website

On June 11, Insta360 Technology Co., Ltd. debuted on the STAR Market with an opening price of 182 yuan, soaring 285% above its issue price of 47.27 yuan, setting a new record for the highest first-day increase among new stocks on the STAR Market in 2025.

At just 34 years old, Liu Jingkang, the founder of Insta360, became the youngest chairman of a listed company on the STAR Market. During the bell-ringing ceremony, he opted to use the company's latest product, the Insta360 X5 panoramic camera, instead of a traditional gong mallet.

Founded in 2015, Insta360 specializes in the research and production of panoramic cameras and action cameras. According to Frost & Sullivan statistics, the company has held the top spot in the global panoramic camera market for six consecutive years. In the action camera sector, it ranks second globally, closely trailing the established American brand GoPro.

Insta360's financial performance is equally remarkable. In 2024, the company achieved revenue of 5.574 billion yuan and net profit of 946 million yuan, maintaining a high gross margin of 52.2%. Overseas revenue accounted for 76.35% of total revenue, with products sold to over 60 countries and regions.

Moreover, Insta360's IPO raised 1.938 billion yuan, making it the largest single fundraising project on the STAR Market in 2025.

Technology-Driven Entrepreneurship

During his college years, Liu Jingkang demonstrated strong technical prowess. He once generated average facial images for each department by analyzing and processing photos of students across the university.

Another widely circulated incident involved Liu Jingkang successfully deducing the mobile phone number of Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360, by analyzing the telephone keypad sounds in a TV interview.

These technical feats caught the attention of venture capital institutions. Tong Chen, a partner at IDG Capital, was on the lookout for promising young entrepreneurs and traveled to Nanjing to meet with Liu Jingkang.

After evaluation, IDG decided to invest in Liu Jingkang's project, despite the fact that it didn't even have a formal business plan. Niu Kuiguang, another partner at IDG Capital, later recalled that although Liu Jingkang was not particularly talkative, he excelled in thinking about technology and products and had strong execution abilities.

In the early stages of his entrepreneurial journey, Liu Jingkang chose the relatively familiar software field. While still in school in 2013, he developed the "Elite Live" app, which primarily featured live streaming of public lectures from major universities.

The project received angel round investment from multiple institutions, including IDG. However, in actual operations, users reported that the video quality was not clear enough, providing a poor viewing experience.

A turning point came when Liu Jingkang encountered panoramic video technology. This 360-degree full-view shooting technology could significantly enhance visual immersion, but the equipment at the time typically consisted of multiple professional cameras, making it costly and complex to operate. Liu Jingkang realized that if a consumer-grade panoramic camera could be created, the market potential would be enormous.

Based on this insight, Liu Jingkang immediately adjusted his entrepreneurial direction after graduating in 2015, shifting from software to hardware. He led a team of over a dozen people from Nanjing to Shenzhen and officially established Insta360.

The choice of Shenzhen was practical, as it boasts the world's most comprehensive consumer electronics industry chain, with solutions readily available from chips and sensors to assembly and OEM.

Breaking Through the Niche Market

Insta360's first product, the Nano, was officially launched in 2016. This device used a direct plug-in connection to the iPhone and employed software algorithms to achieve real-time stitching and processing of panoramic images, solving the technical challenges of slow transmission speeds and complex post-processing of panoramic devices at the time.

After being exhibited at the CES consumer electronics show in the United States, the product received public praise from Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, who described it as an "impressive product".

The initial market response was quite positive. The Nano sold 20,000 units in its first month on the market, generating 20 million yuan in revenue for the company. Overseas distributors placed orders, and the company's revenue grew from zero to tens of millions of yuan per month in a short period.

However, in the second month, sales of the Nano plummeted, exposing the issue of unclear product positioning.

At that time, panoramic cameras were an emerging category with a limited overall market size. Neither traditional imaging manufacturers like Ricoh of Japan and Samsung of Korea nor new entrants like Insta360 had identified a clear target user group and core usage scenario.

The market breakthrough came through Insta360's in-depth observation of user behavior. When analyzing user feedback, Liu Jingkang found that a considerable number of users began using the Nano in sports scenarios, particularly for filming extreme sports such as skiing, cycling, and rock climbing. This discovery made Insta360 realize the true value of panoramic cameras.

While traditional action cameras like GoPro are portable and durable, they require users to control the shooting angle and composition during sports activities, which is difficult to achieve during high-intensity sports. Panoramic cameras offer a new mode of "shoot first, frame later," allowing users to focus on the sport itself and choose the best perspective and composition during post-editing.

Based on this insight, Insta360 established the product positioning of panoramic action cameras. This niche direction is distinct from both the traditional action camera market dominated by GoPro and the VR content creation field focused on by Ricoh and Samsung, forming a unique differentiated competitive advantage.

In 2017, the company launched the Insta ONE product line specifically for sports users. The X series released in 2018 further established Insta360's technical leadership in the field of panoramic action cameras. One of the core innovations of the product is the "Invisible Selfie Stick" feature, which uses image algorithms to make the selfie stick completely disappear from the frame, creating a third-person professional follow-shot visual effect.

In 2018, Insta360 surpassed Samsung and Ricoh to become the world's largest shipper of panoramic cameras for the first time, a leading position it has maintained to this day. The company's revenue has also grown rapidly, from 258 million yuan in 2018 to exceeding 2 billion yuan in 2022 and reaching 5.574 billion yuan in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 65.25% in the past three years.

From its inception, Insta360 has focused on overseas markets. In 2024, overseas revenue was 4.223 billion yuan, accounting for 76.35% of total revenue. The main sales regions include the United States (23%), Europe (23%), and developed Asia-Pacific markets such as Japan.

In the US market, it is not uncommon for consumers to queue up to purchase Insta360's new products, demonstrating their popularity.

High Valuation Under Scrutiny

With a market capitalization of 70 billion yuan, Insta360 faces greater market expectations and competitive pressure. The most immediate threat comes from intensifying industry competition.

According to market news, DJI plans to launch its first consumer-facing panoramic camera, the DJI Osmo 360, in July 2025, which will directly impact Insta360's core business. Meanwhile, the former industry leader GoPro is also preparing to release a new 360-degree panoramic product, aiming to regain lost market share.

The ceiling of the market space is another issue that cannot be ignored. According to industry research by Frost & Sullivan, the global panoramic camera market size was 5.03 billion yuan in 2023, and the action camera market size was 31.44 billion yuan.

Although it is expected to maintain an annual growth rate of 10-13% in the coming years, the overall market capacity for panoramic cameras is still limited compared to mass consumer electronics categories such as smartphones and tablets.

More concerning are signs of slowing growth. Insta360's net profit growth rate in 2024 dropped significantly from 103% in 2023 to 20%, indicating a weakening of growth momentum. In the first quarter of 2025, the company's net profit was 176 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.5%, marking the first negative growth for Insta360 in recent years.

High dependence on overseas markets also brings additional risks. In 2024, competitor GoPro filed a Section 337 investigation application with the US International Trade Commission, accusing Insta360's related products of infringing its intellectual property rights in the US.

Although Insta360 has submitted a product circumvention design plan, similar intellectual property disputes may continue to affect the company's business operations in key overseas markets.

In an interview, Liu Jingkang said that the company's long-term goal is not only to compete in existing categories but also to define new product categories through continuous innovation. Although he did not disclose specific product plans, he emphasized that the company is developing innovative products for new markets.

For the youngest chairman of a listed company on the STAR Market, a market capitalization of 70 billion yuan is both a recognition of his efforts over the past decade and a new starting point for future development.

As he said in his listing speech, "I haven't done anything earth-shattering; I've just insisted on doing one thing to the extreme, helping people better record and share their lives."

Disclaimer: The content of this article is for reference only. The information or opinions expressed in the article do not constitute any investment advice. Readers are advised to make investment decisions cautiously.