Changing of the Guard: Insta360 Takes Times Square as GoPro Fades

Outside 1515 Broadway in Times Square, the usual line mostly leads upstairs to the theater where The Lion King musical has been running for twenty years. But on September 19 local time, this line turned the corner, stretched all the way to the next intersection, and seemed endless.

The Line That Stopped Times Square

The source of the line was not the premiere of a new Broadway show, but a newly opened Chinese camera store.

The store opening that day was the first US flagship store of Chinese imaging brand Insta360. It was also the brand's first directly operated store outside Asia.

Insta360 was founded in Shenzhen in 2015. It first made its name with a camera designed for shooting panoramic footage. Its main products are panoramic and action cameras that do not require cumbersome equipment and can be shared directly after shooting.

In June 2025, it listed on the Shanghai STAR Market. Its market value once exceeded 70 billion yuan, about 76 billion Hong Kong dollars. Industry insiders have called it the world's first listed smart imaging company. Overseas markets contribute about 70 percent of its overall revenue.

The store was originally scheduled to open at noon, but the number of people lining up far exceeded expectations. According to US imaging media outlet PetaPixel, the crowd on the scene that day may have exceeded 1,000 people. The first customer arrived at 2:30 a.m. and waited nearly 10 hours.

One American netizen uploaded footage to social platform X. She described the line as a massive procession that turned two corners. She jogged while high-fiving people in line, and it took her a full 61 seconds to reach the end.

Insta360's New York flagship opening drew massive launch-day crowds.

The young man at the front of the line wants to become a YouTuber. He headed straight to the site after finishing work and queued overnight, becoming the day's 'number one fan.' He received a limited-edition new gimbal camera with an exclusive gold logo.

When asked why he was so enthusiastic about a Chinese brand, his answer captured a recent shift in the US imaging market. He said he used to ride his bike near Central Park a lot. Back then everyone was using GoPro, but now almost everyone has switched to Insta360.

In the line there was also a race car driver who flew nearly 10,000 kilometers from Egypt specifically for this. Egypt still has no Insta360 dealer, and he had tried many places without being able to buy one. So he simply flew directly to New York.

There was also an American father who specially brought his 10-year-old son to New York so they could experience Insta360's latest camera together as a birthday gift.

Coincidentally, Tim Cook, who has stepped down as Apple's chief executive officer and now serves as chairman of the executive board, also posted on Weibo on September 20.

He said every time he sees customers experiencing Apple's new products at Apple Store retail locations in China, it is especially uplifting.  The accompanying photo showed customers waiting outside the store in long, multi-layered lines.

It so happened that on September 18 this year, Apple's iPhone 18 Pro series also went on sale in many places around the world. That triggered a fair amount of queuing as well.

But the mindset behind the two types of lines is completely different. Most people buying an iPhone have a hard need to upgrade and see it as routine. People who queued overnight to buy a Chinese camera were actively pursuing an emerging category that was previously unheard of.

The difference is also why outsiders are paying attention to Insta360's opening.

GoPro Fades as Chinese Brands Take Over

To understand the weight of that New York line, you first need to understand the global imaging industry's power map over the past few decades. Japanese camera brands long monopolized the industry's discourse. The American brand GoPro defined the action camera category and was once synonymous with the product type. But market research data shows the landscape has reversed in recent years.

In 2022, GoPro still held about 84% of the global action camera market. That was an absolute monopoly. Within just a few years, its share collapsed. By the first three quarters of 2025 it had fallen to about 18%. In the same market, GoPro went from roughly eight out of ten cameras to fewer than two in ten.

In August this year, GoPro submitted documents to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that included the blunt warning "substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern." A company that once defined an entire industry now has to admit operating difficulties in public filings.

It has even agreed to merge with an American company in the artificial intelligence optics business. The deal is valued at $285 million, about HK$2.22 billion. Original shareholders would keep only about 10% of the merged company's equity.

In name it is a merger. In substance it is close to being swallowed.

Meanwhile, DJI and Insta360 together account for about 87% of the global handheld smart camera market. This queue is not just one Chinese brand selling well. It is an industry reshuffle. The American company that once set industry standards has been pushed to the margins by Chinese brands in just a few years.

DJI and Insta360 now control about 87% of the global handheld smart camera market.

The shift in Japan is even more telling. Japan has long been seen as the birthplace of the global imaging industry. Local consumers are fiercely loyal to camera brands. On July 2 this year, Insta360 held a launch event for a new gimbal camera in Shibuya, Tokyo.

By 6 a.m. consumers had already arrived to line up. The longest wait reached 9 hours. The organizer temporarily distributed 450 admission tickets, and they were all claimed within half an hour. The white version sold out online in just 5 minutes.

Retail data makes the point even sharper. Japanese research firm BCN reports that in 2025, a Chinese brand won the annual sales crown in the action camera category for the first time. DJI and Insta360 together took about 78% of the Japanese market. GoPro's share collapsed from 34.3% the previous year to 18.9%.

In other words, even in Japan, widely regarded as the birthplace of global imaging technology standards, local consumers would rather queue overnight to buy Chinese cameras.

Chinese brands now lead Japan, overtaking long-time giant GoPro.

What the Queues Really Mean

Back in New York, that flagship store means far more to Insta360 than an opening ceremony. On opening day, Insta360 also announced cumulative global camera shipments had passed 10 million units. That is more than 10 million cameras sold over ten years.

The opening event drew Casey Neistat, a North American imaging creator with more than 10 million followers, along with die-hard users who have followed the brand for years. One of them, Anthony Quintano, was first in line at 3 a.m. for Insta360's first new-product pop-up in New York last year. He became the first person in the world to buy that new model.

Another was Kevin, a cycling community leader. He and 100 local riders in bright yellow jerseys rode through New York landmarks on opening day. They recorded the journey on Insta360 cameras the whole way.

From top influencers and veteran loyalists to ordinary citizens, three seemingly unrelated stories map Insta360's ten-year localization effort in the United States. This Chinese company did not simply move a store into another country. It cultivated local creator circles and vertical communities, embedding itself in local life.

Top creators and local cyclists joined the store ribbon-cutting.

Around Times Square, Insta360's store sits not far from a cluster of Chinese brands that have already entered the US market: Pop Mart, Miniso, and Heytea. But compared with these 'Chinese neighbors' opening stores in New York, Insta360 has cultivated the US market for a full decade. It started out unknown, and now it draws a thousand people to queue overnight at the world's crossroads.

From Tokyo's Shibuya to New York's Times Square, Chinese camera brands are not riding a one-city viral moment. They are on a structural upward trajectory that spans regions and is backed by data.

Going overseas has never meant copying a store into a foreign country. It means making yourself part of local life. That may be the real strength of Chinese brands that has been most easily underestimated in recent years.

Mao Paishou

** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **

When the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, energy costs in Germany, a country heavily reliant on Russian natural gas, spun instantly out of control. Electricity prices at one point surged sevenfold, forcing ordinary people to dream up all manner of clever tricks to save on their power bills. One of those tricks has become a distinctive sight on German streets: the "balcony solar" system.

To cut power bills, Germans turned balconies into power plants.

"Balkonkraftwerk": Miracles On Balconies

This simple generating setup costs just a few hundred euros, yet more than 1.33 million units have been installed across Germany in three years. The German government has even amended the law, granting tenants with no rooftop of their own priority installation rights.

What Germans call the "Balkonkraftwerk", or "balcony power plant", is actually just one or two solar panels hung outside the railing, an inverter the size of a shoebox, and a plug that goes into a household socket. The current then flows back into the home: the inverter sets its output voltage slightly higher than the 230V household supply, so solar power feeds in reverse into the wiring. A small storage battery can be added to keep the power coming at night.

The "Balkonkraftwerk": railing-hung panels, a shoebox-sized inverter, one plug.

The principle is not complicated. It works rather like a water supply system. Pipes maintain a steady pressure; turn on the tap and the pressure difference pushes the water out. The grid works the same way. China's standard household voltage is 220V and Germany's is 230V. The inverter in a balcony photovoltaic module simply nudges its output voltage slightly above the socket voltage, pushing solar power back in.

Once the current enters the socket, it is consumed on the spot, "drunk up" by the appliances at home. Less electricity is drawn from the grid, and the meter turns more slowly. If no appliances are running, then in areas where bidirectional metering is permitted, the surplus power flows out of the home along the mains line and back into the grid.

A Few Hundred Euros, Real Money Back

A "balcony power plant" sells for roughly 200 to 500 euros, depending on output. The best-selling 800W model goes for about 350 euros. A solar-plus-storage package with a battery costs between 800 and 1,500 euros.

A granny who lives in Stuttgart finds a 300W system enough to cover her basic needs: lighting, the router and electric fans. She now checks the next day's sunshine forecast every evening. If the sun will be out, she schedules a bike charge or runs the dishwasher. "Save whatever you can," she says.

Granny's 300W system covers her lights, router and fans.

Her nightly ritual: the sunshine forecast. "Save whatever you can."

Weyland, a young man in the northern city of Kiel, hung two panels with a combined output of 600W on the balcony of his rented apartment. In good weather they cover half of his daily electricity use. The whole system cost under 500 euros, yet saves him more than 90 euros a year, a payback period of about five years. These days he spends his time glued to the app, watching the generation figures roll in.

Kiel renter Weyland's two balcony panels total 600W.

In southern Germany, where the sunshine is better, a standard 800W system generates about 750 to 850 kWh a year. At last year's average price of 0.39 euros per kWh, that puts up to 295 to 334 euros a year back in the user's pocket.

For an ordinary household consuming 3,000 kWh a year, saving is about  25 to 28 percent. A single-person household using around 1,500 kWh could ideally save 50 to 57 percent.

No Roof? No Problem

Europe used to put solar panels on rooftops. But more than half of Germany's population lives in rented housing, the highest share in the EU. That means no roof, no land, nowhere to put panels, and no eligibility for the complicated installation and grid-connection approval process.

No roof, no problem: balcony solar is the tenant's lifesaver.

That was when Chinese manufacturers stepped up, Anker Innovations, EcoFlow and Zendure among them. They launched lightweight, low-cost balcony solar kits that skip the tedious paperwork and are far easier to use.

Panels have been slimmed down from the traditional 20kg to just 3 to 5kg. Hook-style railing clamps fix them in place with a few screws. Some models can simply be lashed on with metal cable ties, and they can be taken down easily when moving.

Voltage has dropped from the 600V to 1,000V high-voltage direct current of rooftop solar to a safe 30V to 60V. The plug goes straight into an ordinary socket, and monitoring is done entirely through an app. Installation and use are virtually "zero-threshold". German young people love it. Chinese manufacturers have turned solar "engineering" into a consumer electronics product for everyone.

Berlin Gives the Green Light

The German government has also given the green light. A legislative amendment in May 2024 allows self-installation without prior approval; simple registration afterwards is enough. Balcony solar is now a "privileged installation", on par with disabled-access facilities and EV charging points. Landlords and owners' committees may not block installations on grounds such as "spoiling the view". A landlord who wants to refuse must prove a safety hazard; if the tenant can fix the hazard, the installation goes ahead anyway. The government also waived the 19 percent VAT, and cities including Berlin and Stuttgart have rolled out dedicated subsidies of up to 500 euros. All income from generation is exempt from personal income tax.

With the government "loosening the reins", balcony solar has grown rapidly. Around 260,000 units were added in 2023. The figure soared to 435,000 in 2024, and another 430,000 or so were registered in 2025. That is 1.1 million units installed at lightning speed in three years. By May this year, cumulative installations had reached 1.33 million, the equivalent of more than a thousand German households signing up every day.

Policy green light: install first, register afterwards.

Other European countries have followed suit. The Netherlands had reached 600,000 cumulative installations by the end of 2025, the highest penetration after Germany, with nearly 5 percent of households equipped. Austria has installed 250,000 units, Italy 200,000 and Belgium 150,000.

Made in China, Invisible at Home

Of the solar panels imported into Europe, 98 percent come from China, and 70 percent of micro-inverters are Chinese-supplied. In balcony energy storage, Chinese companies had already secured the first seven places of the top ten best-seller spots in Europe as early as the third quarter of 2024. Industry forecasts see global installed balcony solar capacity exceeding 50 gigawatts by 2030, with China likely to claim more than 40 percent of it.

Yet in China itself, these products are practically invisible in cities. For one thing, electricity in China is genuinely cheap. For another, China follows a "centralized plus distributed" path.

The northwest builds gigawatt-scale centralized solar bases across deserts and the Gobi on a massive scale, using ultra-high-voltage transmission to solve the geographic mismatch. The east develops distributed solar on factory and detached-house rooftops. Rural rooftops easily run to tens or even hundreds of square meters, accommodating 20kW to 50kW systems. That is dozens of times the generating capacity of balcony solar.

With no domestic demand to speak of, Chinese companies have nonetheless struck overseas demand with pinpoint precision and taken command of the global balcony solar market. The same story has played out with saddle-style window air conditioners, fully automatic lawnmowers, electric-assist bicycles and AI game-tracking cameras. To Western politicians, China's technological rise is a threat. But to ordinary people abroad, Chinese products have made life better, time and again.