DJI is the great world reference in consumer drones With a market share close to 70% and in terms of features/price, it is the best that can be purchased, as we saw in some of the product reviews that we have published. However, the global geopolitical situation is complicating their business activity.
The United States long ago put DJI (a Chinese firm to be precise) on the “black list”, among the entities that are prohibited from using American technology and its use by the country’s federal and military agencies on the grounds that “It Is An Arm Of China’s Army And Has Actively Aided The Surveillance And Repression Of The Uyghur Muslim Minority In China’s Xinjiang Province”.
Now, the large German retailer MediaMarkt, where DJI has its European headquarters, has stopped the sale of drones of this brand after accusations of «help russia« for the invasion of Ukraine. It is not ruled out that other European retailers will follow the same path. DJI has issued a press release in which it ensures that it is “a coordinated campaign making false accusations against DJI through thousands of spam messages with the same content«.
DJI and the Ukrainian war
Dead, wounded and refugees accumulate in an illegal, immoral and unnecessary war whose only way out is for Putin to order the withdrawal of Russian troops from the occupation of a sovereign country and to take an active interest in a negotiation that ends in a great agreement that offers security for Ukraine, Europe and in general for the entire planet because it ends up affecting us all. It seems that there are advances in the negotiation… We bet on them.
You already know that this war, in addition to the terrible situation of the Ukrainian civilian population and many devastated cities, has serious connotations for the energy market, the cybersecurity market and perhaps to a lesser extent, but also, the technological world. The recently renewed “friendship alliance” between China and Russia and described as “without limits” is behind the news at hand. China has not supported the invasion of Ukraine, but neither has it condemned it.
They explain in The Register that in mid-March the first problems for DJIwhen Ukrainian users were left unable to use the comprehensive drone detection platform AeroScope, that allows to detect and identify drones, telemetry, flight status, aircraft routes and direction, the location of the drone pilot and more. Russian users could run AeroScope, leading to accusations in Ukraine that “DJI was helping Moscow”.
The company denied those accusations and said it was working with customers to resolve AeroScope’s failures in Ukraine, explaining that “were related to temporary loss of power and/or internet services”. Days later, the problem was not solved and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, made a similar accusationclaiming that Russia has access to an improved version of AeroScope which has a range of 50 km and called for access to the same long-range service to be offered in Ukraine, something that has not happened to date.
The accusations of “help Russia” persisted and this week another one has arrived, in the sense that “DJI Was Sharing GPS Coordinates Of Drones Operated By Ukraine’s Defense Forces With Russia”. We’ll see what happens. DJI drones are worth a lot to any consumer, but these accusations (whether true or not) can complicate your business.
Point out that the military drones sold by Turkey to Ukraine have become one of the country’s star defense weapons and as drone users we can understand that even consumer drones can be very useful in this war that we hope will soon come to an end. its completion.
