Small unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, are creating a buzz in a rapidly-expanding market. The potential of consumer drones is large, but not everyone can be considered a ready user.
A bird's eye view of the city's amazing landmarks. or a glimpse of beautiful scenery. The attractiveness of such aerial photographs makes equipment capturing these sights, quite popular.
To get an idea of how fast this market is growing, you just have to look at the new store of Da-jiang - the world's leading drone maker is moving into Hong Kong’s busiest shopping district.
It is the company's third retail outlet in ten months--and less than four years since the company's first ready-to-fly machine made a buzz.
"From 2010 to 2015, our global sales volume grew at an annual rate of between 300 and 500 percent. Last year, it was about 900 million US Dollars. And we expect further growth this year," said Oliver Wang Fan from Da-Jiang Innovations Science & Technology.
Global sales of civilian drones is expected to be around 10. 9 billion US Dollars by 2025, up from an estimated 2.6 billion this year.
But just how are drones being used? Hercules Lau is a professional drone user and an established aerial photographer in Hong Kong.
"Movie filming, program, or even when Hong Kong government or some company wants to promote their new products or a new event. It’s used for fun at the beginning but now it’s one of the most used gimmick for industrial or advertisements," said Hercules Lau, aerial photographer of Wild Bear Company.
While their small size and modest price make drones more accessible, Lau warns against over-confidence on the part of consumers and mistakenly believing that they are simple to use.
"Some people buy the drone because of the price, some because of the safety functions but maybe they won’t concern the limitation, how would that function," said Hercules Lau.
He said basic training and experience is needed before users can safely explore the new possibilities offered by drones and begin to take advantage of this technological innovation.
