Now that the industry has stopped booming, can drone racing still become an e-sports sport?

From exploiting human nature to capturing people's hearts, it is an inherent process of market operation and commercial marketing. However, the hesitation between good and evil and the existence of morality is like a time bomb, which may bring shocks to any industry at any time, especially new things. If shared bicycles are a national magic mirror that reflects the human choices in a disorderly state, then the endless "black flying" incidents of drones, which continue to ignore the basic rules and touch the edge of danger, are also likely to force the government to cut the industry in half. In the end, it is better to say that the road to exploring business models hits the wall of reality than to say that it is defeated by human greed and luck. However, existence is reasonable. While commercial use of human needs must bear its negative effects, or the emergence of these problems indicates another upgrade and transformation of the industry. Just like the flight supervision of consumer drones for aerial photography and entertainment, it may be an opportunity for drone competitions. As a market based on drone technology, it is also very likely to become more professional and commercialized in the future with the improvement of technology, and it is in the ascendant and then flourishing.
Before the popularization of "black technology", perhaps everyone could have a competition. The process of scientific and technological achievements from birth to application to commercial operation has gradually narrowed under the promotion of the Internet era. This is an indisputable fact. However, some projects that naturally carry dangerous factors may subvert the current industrial model in the future, but they are still subject to the current consumer's thinking and government supervision. The latter is naturally understandable, but the breakthrough of the former cannot be achieved by conceptual marketing alone. At this time, a simple and rough competition can make the product more impressive among the audience. Just like AlphaGo's two appearances, it can be said that the label of artificial intelligence is closely linked to Google, and at the same time it has greatly mobilized the general public's attention and recognition of artificial intelligence. Technical competitions have a long history, such as racing spawned by the automotive industry and e-sports derived from the game industry. Their independent existence is not only the product of the professionalization and maturity of their respective fields, but also the necessary needs of the consumer group. The most important thing is that they interact and coexist with the industry. From this perspective, the performance of "black technology" results in the form of sports competitions can also achieve similar effects. On the one hand, the latest technology products are not well known and popular in the market, and the prices are relatively high, so it is difficult to really meet the rigid needs of consumers. If the entertainment-oriented competitive games can use new media such as live broadcasts to present cool technological strength or rich visual experience, it can greatly enhance consumers' understanding of the main performance of a new product, which is a more professional marketing method. On the other hand, similar sports competitions have provided a clear business model for high-tech product competitions. Taking e-sports as an example, the industry market size in 2015 was 26.9 billion yuan, and the revenue sources included three modules: e-sports game revenue, e-sports derivative revenue, and e-sports event revenue. Among them, e-sports games are the main component, but from the revenue share in the past two years, it can be seen that the growth rate of e-sports derivative revenue is extremely fast. As the total number of users maintains a steady growth, the growth of the industry scale in the future will mainly come from derivative revenue. By analogy, drone competitions, robot competitions and even autonomous driving racing can all develop in the model of commercial sports. Especially for the drone industry, the wind has gone and the reshuffle period has arrived. Even DJI has to face the problem of slowing growth. It is reported that in 2016, DJI achieved a year-on-year sales growth of 65%, exceeding 10 billion yuan. However, compared with the year-on-year growth rate of more than 100% in 2015, it has dropped significantly. Moreover, 80% of DJI's revenue comes from consumer drones, while about 80% of the revenue of consumer drones comes from markets outside mainland China. This not only shows that the domestic market has just started, which has limited the further expansion of the drone market, but also proves that the development of derivative income from drones has become a necessity when the industry growth rate slows down. In fact, the competition for smart products has been developed on a large scale in many regions with the rise of various industries. For example, the United States held an unmanned vehicle competition as early as 2005, and the United Kingdom convened a series of autonomous driving car competition days in Europe, and competitions led by automobile companies such as Audi have also been launched one after another. Of course, the promotion purpose of these competitions is far greater than the commercial purpose of competition. However, drone competitions are more likely to enter the door of sports competition because they have a similar growth soil with e-sports. E-sports born at the wrong time, drone flight restricted by people Although e-sports is now showing the market potential of accumulated strength, for an industry that has existed for more than ten years and has appeared in the field of games in the initial development stage, this time is still much late. Especially compared with the United States, South Korea and other countries, my country's e-sports industry has missed too many opportunities. All of this is probably mainly due to the long-term prejudice of public opinion and even the government against the industry, which has repeatedly weakened the core strength of e-sports. It can even be said that without the support of professional athletes such as Li Xiaofeng and a large user base, my country's e-sports would have been strangled by explicit prohibitions and narrow cognition. 2003 can be said to be the best start for e-sports, because in that year the State Sports General Administration announced that e-sports was the 99th sport officially launched in China. Under the premise of official recognition, e-sports should have entered its golden age. However, only one year later, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a nationwide ban on computer game programs, prohibiting all state-owned TV stations from broadcasting any notices about online game programs. This ban almost cut off the most important form of publicity for e-sports in the era when television media dominated the mainstream. As a result, my country's entire e-sports industry fell into a period of depression and could only rely on clubs and professionals for free development. It was not until 2014 that the government saw the explosive power of e-sports in the tertiary industry and began to re-support and integrate the industry. If policy risks suppress the booming development of e-sports, then they are now also threatening the start of the drone industry in China. This is certainly due to the hidden safety hazards of illegal drone flights, but it is not wise to let an industry that is in its rising stage bear the negative consequences of loopholes in industry management rules and the quality of pilots. In comparison, facing the pressure of government supervision, e-sports can be revitalized after a decade of cooling off. The drone industry and its derivative commercial competitions may also be properly explored with the improvement of relevant management regulations without a barbaric and arbitrary ban. This is mainly because both have the core strength of an industry, which is a large user group formed based on hobbies. E-sports is affiliated with the online game industry, and the growing number of netizens in my country is the best breeding ground for its development. Some of the players generated from this huge user base develop into professional players, and the vast majority are attracted by professional leagues to become fans of excellent players. This relationship based on common interests has a strong industry stickiness and is also the focus of investment manufacturers. Similarly, drone competitions also have a growing number of users as a basis. According to the 2016 China Drone Industry Research Report authoritatively released by iiMedia Research, the scale of China's civilian consumer drone market was about 800 million yuan in 2015, and is expected to reach 3.2 billion yuan in 2016, and may exceed 24 billion yuan in 2019. In other words, within four or five years, the number of drone users will be 30 times the total in 2015. At the same time, the Drone User Report released by DronesDirect in 2016 shows that in terms of usage, 67.9% of users use drones as a form of entertainment, and 9.9% of users use drones to capture life shots. Moreover, 81% of users have used drones to take photos or videos, and 67.9% of users use them as a hobby. In other words, the number of drone users and entertainment tendencies will greatly promote the development and maturity of the drone competition industry. Importantly, the report also shows that 10% of users have joined drone clubs, 8% of users have joined professional drone competition teams, and 5.8% of users and friends have participated in amateur drone competitions. This shows that in the face of this emerging technology product, users are more willing to choose to participate in activities in the form of groups, which makes it easier to nourish the growth environment of drone competitions. Compared with the golden age of e-sports development, drone racing is in the era of mobile Internet, which undoubtedly has wider channels and forms to expand the influence of content, and with the upgrade of related technologies, it will present the best effect of combining art and technology. Competition will become a new breakthrough point for the drone industry, which has stopped booming . In 2014, a group of enthusiasts in California, USA, formed the "FPV Explorers and Competitors". In the same year, the European drone interest group Airgonay became famous online for releasing thrilling footage of drones flying through the French forest at a speed of nearly 70 miles per hour. This is the origin of drone racing. However, in just two years, drone competitions around the world have been launched, forming a commercial operation model with professional pilots, sponsors, and live broadcast media as the main body. In particular, the Drone Sports Association (DSA) has reached an agreement with ESPN, which will broadcast the second National Drone Racing Championship live, and the Drone Racing League (DRL) has signed an agreement with Sky Broadcasting in the UK to broadcast its 10 games on Sky's Sports Comprehensive Channel. This is enough to prove that the scale of the competition is increasing, further releasing the market potential of this "future sport". Most importantly, the future development of drone racing is by no means limited to the current form, and there is still a broader space. First, the combination of VR and drone racing will not only stay at the marketing level. Although the current VR drones can directly feed back the images taken by the camera to the main screen of the VR headset to provide a high-altitude perspective experience, strictly speaking, this is not a true 360-degree panoramic camera and immersive experience. However, it is undeniable that drones will become a key scenario for VR applications, and there are already relevant technology companies committed to this, such as the Aerix Vidiusvr, the world's smallest VR drone recently announced by the US drone company Aerix, and the three-axis VR drone displayed by the Korean manufacturer Varavon. Both have built-in cameras that support VR shooting and can provide a simple VR service experience. In other words, relying on breakthroughs in VR technology in the future, this combination will have a greater possibility of improvement. Second, the battle between anti-drone and drones may also be included in the schedule in the future to increase the fun of the game. There are many different anti-drone technologies at present, including using sound waves, radio frequencies, etc. to interfere with the hardware or wireless communications of drones, forcing drones to return or land automatically. However, it is more suitable to develop competitions, such as large-scale capture drones and violent shooting down with tools. Both of them have the function of testing the speed and sensitivity of drones, and can also increase the entertainment of drone competitions to a certain extent. Third, the expansion of models suitable for drone competitions. Many participating drones are now H-shaped, because of their small size and high flexibility, they are most suitable for obstacle races and other projects. On the contrary, the most popular DJI consumer drones are not suitable for competitions at present. It has to be said that this greatly limits the commercial operation and scale expansion of drone competitions. However, the obstacle avoidance, speed and safety performance of consumer drones will undoubtedly be greatly improved in the future. At that time, watching the battle between drone companies' products will also be a highlight. Compared with other sports competitions, the qualification restrictions and cost thresholds of the drone industry itself also allow competitions to be linked with other commercial uses, such as industry training, drone rental, etc. These potential market segments are gradually becoming the development trend of the drone industry. If they can be smoothly integrated with drone competitions, a more complete and mature industrial chain may be formed. Perhaps in the future we can really see another potential market split out of the drone industry, that is, sports-level or competitive drones. After all, in today's drone market, even the smallest mosquito is still meat.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.

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