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Comment by flyinglizard | Hacker News Reader

SV didn't lose to China; everyone lost to DJI. Their competence was staggering (I think they kind of slowed down lately being that they're so far out from everyone; throttling their innovation a bit).

If DJI represents the future of Chinese corporations[0], many people on the other side of the ocean should be very wary.

[0] edited from "products". In fact what's so impressive with DJI is not just the products themselves, but also the design, marketing and branding, which is kind of an Apple/GoPro hybrid. They are not just creating immense value - they are packaging it the right way.

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> In fact what's so impressive with DJI is not just the products themselves, but also the design, marketing and branding, which is kind of an Apple/GoPro hybrid. They are not just creating immense value - they are packaging it the right way.

This is what always struck me as so short-sighted about Western corporations offshoring their manufacturing. Japan and the Asian Tigers proved that it's possible for nations to successfully climb the value chain, starting off by doing low-skilled work and then using the experience gained from that to gradually take over more and more of the overall product development process. China is just taking that approach and applying it at a larger scale than anyone has ever done before.

When a company like Apple contracts out its manufacturing to a Chinese firm, it's betting that Apple will always be able to produce better design and marketing than that Chinese firm can. But based on history, that doesn't strike me as a very good bet. Eventually the Chinese firm will climb high enough on the value chain where they don't need Apple's designers and marketers to make objects that sell anymore. The Western companies are training their own replacements.

>>short-sighted about Western corporations offshoring their manufacturing

EXACTLY!

While the western corporations think they're taking advantage of cheap Chinese labor, the Chinese are actually taking advantage of our weakness for short-term profits over long-term investment and getting us to sellout IP in the bargain. For western corporations & governments, one of the most historically stupid geostrategic moves ever.

Yeah, but that's the problem of the next CEO and not this one, and all the smart investors want to take anything they can get now and simply jump ship when they see something dark on the horizon. The only ones screwed are those with not much of a voice in leading the company, and/or lack of ability to move themselves elsewhere as easily as big capital can. I think they have all been acting perfectly rationally. After all, working "for the common good" is not anyone's goal, and according to the leading religion - or economic theory - that is perfectly alright and desirable, because invisible hand... I don't think keeping companies around for very long still is a goal of investors other than family businesses.

Hmm that's very interesting. Reminds me of what Netflix did to Hollywood but played out internationally.

China (Netflix) takes what the United States(Hollywood) doesn't want to do/finds little value in. Once China (Netflix) has a foundation of manufacturing know-how (media catalog)they move up the chain to more complex technical (media) products.

Why worry about the long term, when you can get rich in the short term? After you are rich, long term is someone else’s problem.

>SV didn't lose to China; everyone lost to DJI. Their competence was staggering

If anyone is interested look up "robomasters" for a DJI recruitment competition running with teams from >100 Chinese Universities.

> many people on the other side of the ocean should be very wary.

People should be excited.

If Chinese companies all behave like DJI, that's a blessing to everyone.

this is my concern as well. on the hardware side, a Chinese startup can iterate faster & be the lowest cost producer. if design, UX, software, marketing is on par with SV/US competitors. SV is toast (in that industry)

DJI is super interesting. They just have the best products. There was a time when they did not have the best products. Super curious as to how they leapfrogged everyone so quickly.

How many state subsidies went to DJI?

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