Profits, air-dropped!

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Drones fly over a wheat field to spray insecticide at a farm of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) in Bayan Gol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, June 9, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

Unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, which are more popular as drones, are evolving from specialist gadgets to consumer electronics items on the one hand and industrial tools on the other.

In the process, they are spawning an industry that is promising huge revenues and global scale, redefining smart mobility and enhancing all walks of life.

In the consumer electronics sector, civilian drones are mainly used in aerial photography.

Their industrial applications are seeing huge demand in China as a range of sectors-agriculture, geological surveying and mapping, electricity, oil and petroleum pipeline inspection, transportation, construction, public security and disaster relief-are using them.

The consumer drone market took off in 2015, but grew slowly, and seemed to reach the saturation point last year. Media reports said drone makers such as EHang and Zerotech had cut jobs and other costs, and sought to diversify.

Data from the Shenzhen-based Qianzhan Industry Research Institute said the industrial drone segment is now growing rapidly, with total sales revenue in 2020 expected to reach 16.5 billion yuan ($2.5 billion).

Experts said this segment is expected to see its market value surge in the future. Expectedly, major drone makers have ratcheted up efforts to develop a variety of drones, aspiring to take a lead amid fierce competition.

Shenzhen, Guangdong province-based DJI, which currently accounts for 70 percent of the global consumer drone market, is devoting a great deal of attention to farming sector drones.

DJI plans to further invest 10 million yuan in agricultural drones and on cultivating drone operators this year-it will open 1,000 brick-and-mortar retail stores, train over 20,000 professional drone operators and establish more than 600 training branches across the nation.

In December, it launched its latest agricultural drone, the T16, which features an upgraded loading capacity, as well as dynamic systems to increase working efficiency and accuracy.

Drone operators who use such drones can spray pesticides on about 10 hectares of farmland an hour.

"We don't focus only on profits but also on training people to operate the agricultural drones in the short term, as well as helping them develop a business model, which is in accordance with our corporate culture and medium-and long-term strategies," said Luo Zhenhua, president of DJI.

The company is bullish about the prospects for agricultural drones as the demand for such gadgets is huge and the whole industry is still in exploration mode.

In November 2015, DJI launched its first agricultural drone, the MG-1, marking its diversification into the industrial segment. It unveiled an upgraded agricultural drone, the MG-1S, in 2016 and the MG-1S Advanced in 2017, with upgraded flight control system, radar and sensors.

It also provided consumer loans so that buyers could afford drones; its financial services sought to enable operations and related training.

With the modernization of agriculture, the demand for advanced farming devices has been growing significantly. Qianzhan forecast that the value of the domestic agricultural drone market will exceed 12.8 billion yuan by 2021, at an annual compound growth rate of 38 percent.

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