What Country Will Dominate Drone Industry?

Written by Andre Louis-Ferdinand

Arrogance combined with a huge ego will get you a long way, but not all of the way. Much of my audience will not like what I am about to say, but you don't read my blog to be lied to. Recently, many large UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) websites and UAV conferences have been telling consumers, investors, & pilots that the United States will dominate the drone industry. With article titles like "How America Will Dominate the $10 Billion Global Market for Drones," the growing US drone industry is selling a compelling narrative, but not an accurate one, for commercial operations.

You see, for the past several decades, the US has come to believe that we are the best at everything for no reason other than being America, despite significant evidence to the contrary. Almost every single major technological achievement that has turned into a viable electronic product has been either developed in or built in another country. We see this with high speed rail, solar power, and, yes, even drones.

Don't believe me? Just look at the names of the big players in the commercial drone market right now. The chart above shows all of the registered drones in the US being used for commercial operations. Because the market is dominated by only a handful of companies, it only shows the percentages of two of the companies' market share. In first place is the Chinese company DJI with nearly 43% of the market. In second place is the American AeroVironment with only 9.1%. That means that AeroVironment only controls just over one fifth of what DJI controls in the market and drone operators will be hesitant to switch from DJI. To put into perspective how large DJI's nearly 43% market share really is, that is a larger percentage hold on the US commercial drone market than the Apple Iphone has on the US cell phone market...which also happens to be a product largely engineered and made in China. It seems, like solar power and high speed rail, China has beaten us to the drone party as well...