Everyone knows GoPro, and most filmmakers own at least one. Furthermore, many of us know the struggling phase of the company, that wants to be the king of the action camera again. “The Extinction of GoPro” is a fascinating analysis made by Modern MBA that sheds light on that matter.
Be a HERO by Go(ing)Pro
I remember back in 2006, I was walking into a surf shot in Redondo Beach L.A, and seeing a small camera sitting on a shelf. “This is the next big thing,” said the shop owner. I didn’t know how it performed, but I bought it on the spot. Yep- it was a love of first sight. I was among the first filmmakers who owned the HERO1 in my country. Unfortunately, during a shoot, the Mediterranean sea has taken my HERO1. So I bought (on the same day) another one, which was the HERO2. In 2007, I was shooting with the HERO2 attached to a remote car. The footage looked amazing. I loved that piece of imaging device. Since then, numerous models have developed, and the company which was the stock market hotshot, has faded. But why? A very educating and intriguing video tries to answer that.
A bit of history
GoPro was a startup that by the measures of Silicon Valley and Wall Street, seemed destined to be the next big billion-dollar consumer brand. The cameras have taken the world by storm with its game-changing HEROs. The company was founded by Nick Woodman in 2002. He was motivated by a 2002 surfing trip to Australia in which he was hoping to capture high-quality action photos, but could not because amateur photographers could not get close enough or buy appropriate quality equipment at reasonable prices. The ‘GoPro’ name came about as Woodman and his surfing friends all aspired to become professional surfers as ‘Going Pro’ was the ultimate goal and the only way to be filmed on the water at that time. The camera range was branded ‘HERO’ as their aim was to capture close-up action shots that made the subject look like a hero. The first camera was sold in 2004. That was a film camera. Since then, almost every year a new model has been launched. In 2014, the company was listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange using the symbol GPRO.
The stock has dropped 95%.
Yet fast forward to present-day in 2023, less than a decade later, and GoPro’s stock has dropped 95%. How could a company who had all the right ingredients from the measures of Silicon Valley and Wall Street, squander it all in such a short period of time? How could having a market-darling, category-leading product be worth so little? In this episode, Modern MBA covers the rise and fall of GoPro into 3 eras, their failures in strategy, and how the company’s collapse serves as a crucial lesson on the importance of knowing your market. The research divides the analysis into 3 parts: The Golden Age, The Era of Doom, and Dead Brand Walking. Watch this comprehensive research below:
Initial thoughts
Based on Modern MBA’s research, GoPro was making a lot of mistakes, which prevented it from a slick road to success. As explained, the company has released a new model every year, combined with the price reduction of previous models. The price reductions were significant. As a result, many consumers have been waiting for this price reduction, and thus skipping on purchasing new models since they were buying the older models. Moreover, Woodman has noticed that this price reduction caused losses while not expanding the market size: “Lowering price makes the product more accessible, but it doesn’t increase the market size” he said. Secondly, the company was not focused. As stated by the CEO, Woodman: “When you give the consumer too many choices, you confuse them, and they often end up buying nothing”. If I will ask you to name all the GoPro HERO3 models, for instance, you will probably fail (answer: 5 models of HERO3). Furthermore, we all remember GoPro’s bad Karma (the quadcopter drone released in October 2016, and discontinued In January 2018). That was a knockdown. Finally, there’s the mighty DJI and advanced smartphone cameras. These days, smartphones are robust, weather and waterproof. Thus, a good smartphone can replace GoPro in some scenarios. Nevertheless, to me, GoPro will always be the weapon of choice when I surf, or when I need/want to capture extreme action with fun and not worry too much about the camera. Let us know your thoughts about this research. Do you think GoPro is under extinction?
Go Pro needs the following to compete: Live Streaming Options From Remote Locations Built In SIM card Option: Thier Service needs Cloud Connect to Frame IO and Blackmagic Cloud . and an Online Multi Cam Switcher option wouldn’t hurt. They have their place but are behind on the Cloud Wave
Here is a bit of history. It is a DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERA. No film is used or needed. Film and digital video require a different set of skills. When you refer to it as filming or a tool filmmakers use, you lack any understanding of what the difference is and it is vast. Digital Video and film have two different historical paths independent of one another. Film has 150 years of history attached to it and DIGITAL video has 100 years of development. We work with Digital Video, Non-linear, and CGI. Know the difference and stand out from the crowd. Filming is what the other guys did/do. 🙂 Movies are no longer films. 🙂
Go Pro has forgotten who the customer is. Action cameras are for action, not 10 second tik tok videos. I used a GoPro on race cars to recorded the action. They do not work in that environment any longer, overheating after 10 or 20 minutes at best. My Go Pro Hero 3 works better than the Hero 9, both shoot 1080/30. However the stability control make the 9 better. It also makes it overheat. Mindless time times have reduced us to vlogging, 10 sec videos, selfies and things that we don’t need a Go Pro for. Why do they chase this market. I would be willing to pay more for a camera that actually worked for my application. I was an early adopter of Go Pro and still have a Hero. I had an event that lasted 5 min, once a year. The footage was terrible and I had to wait a year to try again. (White balance issue)
My problem with GoPro is the editing software for the Max camera. Very glitchy and rarely works well to edit video.
Who wrote this pile of Sh*t? Also who read it and thought.. Yeah let’s publish it? 😂
Their horrible customer service and unresolved Cloud upload errors is the nail in the GoPro coffin for me.
In addition to the charging system for Hero11 Mini being poor, the widely advertised “no-questions-asked camera replacement.” is not what I thought until I needed a replacement. It is not free / included with subscription. It gets you a same-model replacement for $99. On sale new (older model) at Best Buy for $199. I would like to credit my entire purchase price to a newer model, the one with the “entirely new battery management system” which is exactly a feature I need, but did not think I needed until I experienced the suckiness of Hero11 Mini
I run 2 cameras on a ski race boat. The ‘Remote’ is unreliable, sometimes connecting to only 1 camera, sometimes neither. The cameras overheat and shut down after less than 20 minutes. Races go for 40 minutes. I use telemetry but GoPro do not have editing software for this. There are occasions when, for no reason, the GPS is off or date not set up. I have had at least 6 cameras over about 8 years now but will jump when DJI or Leica understand I want to record long sport events and not short Tik Tok clips.
They could easily turn it around if they would just make a updated Session the fpv drone community has been begging for years for… We want something smaller and lighter that does good 4k 60fps, we don’t need a single screen, just make it work! There are hundreds of thousands of us and alot of us would buy at least 2
I love my 9, 10, and 12! My 3 still works but is not 4K. The 9 and 10 have gotten warm after on for one hour, but have only shut down when the battery ran out. The 12, with no GPS, runs for over two hours. I have over 40 videos on my YouTube channel, all awesome! Thank you GoPro!!!