[Courtesy of DJI]
Chinese drone giant DJI showcased its latest consumer model, the Phantom 4, on Friday before opening its first flagship retail store in South Korea, one of the world's most wired countries, which is seen as a test bed for new and modern gadgets.
DJI's five-storey drone store will open on Thursday near Hoik University in western Seoul. It will be DJI's first outlet overseas.
DJI, headquartered in Shenzhen, produces commercial and recreational unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for aerial photography and videography. It
now controls about 70 percent of the world's two billion US dollar consumer drone market, having sold around 700,000 of its ubiquitous white quad-rotor drones last year.
The Phantom 4, which carries a price tag of two million won ($1,660) is more expensive than others, but DJI hopes to elevate it above low-cost newcomers piling into the drone market, which is expected to rise from more than $5 billion in 2014 to more than $12 billion in 2023.
South Korea has only a small market for drones due to restrictions caused by the division of the Korean peninsula, but it has promised to address administrative issues such as privacy, safety regulations and frequency-overlapping, as pilotless air vehicles are expected to create a new market with great growth potential.
In February, Israel Aerospace Industries and Hankuk Carbon, a South Korean composite manufacturer, forged a deal to form a joint venture for the development, manufacture, and marketing of UAVs.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
