Live data from Hacker News

Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

amateurphotographer.com

441–450 of 586 posts

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#441
post #281

It’s the classic situation. China can outcompete all this stuff. It doesn’t really matter. Roomba, GoPro, they’re all going to be crushed by Chinese manufacturers. You just can’t get the margins to work anywhere else and if you do the R&D you’re a sucker. I’ve had a few GoPros and a few GoPro 360s. I also had Roombas so you can blame me as the brand killer.

If you look at these US high-tech consumer products, many companies started out much “simpler”. GoPro was a disposable film camera and a wrist-strap, and iteratively got to where it is today. The iPod came out much before the iPhone. As you say, the R&D is a hard sell when you have to go from 0 product to a fully featured state-of-the-art. Somehow, these Chinese companies can spend years copying and then once locked…

So why doesn't the US do it in reverse? Surely there's some R&D going on in China that US can reverse engineer.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait - what? You cannot buy them because they are dumping them??????

"Dumping" is a term of art in international trade. It's the thing that happens when a foreign exporter sells goods in your country below their production cost (or far below what they're charging domestic customers). It's done to fuck up the foreign markets for those goods, or, in China's case, as a relief valve for malinvestment. China drastically overfunds EV production. There's a whole weird story where provinces a…

Interesting that they are “dumping” them in Australia and other countries at prices that are competitive but far above what they cost in China.

Below cost of production my ass.

The only Western car company even competing with them is Tesla, who people love to hate for ideological reasons.

Calling what Chinese companies are doing “dumping” is pure cope for the utter failures of Western companies.

Look at my post history, I’m not pro-China at all, but I am a realist and can see the evidence with my own eyes since we can actually get the vehicles here.

I give it 5 years for Western and Japanese companies to be decimated in this market. Can’t say they don’t deserve it.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#443
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your country’s industrial and defense policy relies on individual consumers making choices that are worse for them on almost all metrics, it’s time to think about on worse payroll your politicians are.

Absolutely true. But China’s industrial dominance is also the government immiserating its people, just in a different way. Domestic consumption in China is famously low, work culture is famously bad (996,etc). And this is because of what their government, not the people of China, have chosen to do.

Not for nothing, but what do you think is happening in the United States?

American workers have lost income on inflation adjusted terms from 2000-2025. The top 5 companies have a market cap that exceeds the top 30 in 2000, and the concentration of those companies is a single industry vs a diverse collection.

Consolidation of power and capital is reality everywhere. China is not a boogeyman. Go there.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a country that’s suffered from the US subsidising its own industries What country and what industries? I am curious. Do you think that you own country does not do the same to others?

> What country and what industries? New Zealand. Meat exports and dairy.

I would assume that China is your biggest trade partner for both of those categories. Is the US a major trade partner for either of those categories? I find it hard to believe. The US (and most rich countries) have way too much domestic dairy farm capacity. As a result, there is lots of govt subsidies paid to dairy farmers.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, their system has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, but government policy is now making Chinese consumers poorer than they otherwise would be in order to support domestic industry. It seem’s to be for geo-strategic reasons rather than in the interests of the Chinese people, it’s also probably unsustainable.

WOW the classic yes...but..., where's these statement coming from? I'm Chinese and I don't get the point here at all, you guys seem living in vacuum with biased news, and know much much better than we people living here, that's really confusing everytime I see/read comments lie this. China now is open freely for almost everyone, come and see by yourslef, if you not living poverty. The world itslef does not work the p…

Tell your neighbors, friends, and government bureaucrats about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Let me know how that goes.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re not remotely equivalent though. That’s like saying that a raspberry pi and 16” monitor are equivalent to a MacBook Pro because that’s the cheapest 16” monitor Apple sells.

Okay so explain the difference to a normal consumer because I'm printing toys for my kid... Both are enclosed and both do 4 colors in a variety of materials. Both are the cheapest version of that that each company offers. IMO it's more like comparing a Honda to a Mercedes. I'm sure the Mercedes is better but a Honda gets you places all the same.

It’s more like comparing a Honda to an F-350.

If all you want to do is drive the kids to school, you want the Honda, but that doesn’t make the 2 products equivalent.

But if all you’re doing is printing toys for the kids an A1 mini would have been less than half the price of the P1S. The enclosure is mostly a waste if you’re only printing PLA. You’re going to end up venting anyway. Core XY is a little faster than a bedslinger, but if you’re doing a lot of multi color prints, the material change time will dominate, so you won’t see much practical difference.

> both do a variety of materials.

The p1s does not regulate the chamber temperature, so the variety of materials you can get good results either is much more limited.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China is still a dictatorship who massacred its own people despite building high speed rail... They only got it good when the USA opened relations in the 80s something they never did with Soviet. China does not have universal health care. China helps Russia invade Ukraine. That is simple. Unless you like that too? Also, where do people want to live? North EU. Yet when we keep our lands people call us racist.

And the US calls itself a democracy and kills innocent people abroad. I don't see any merit in these simplistic world views. The world isn't Lord of the Rings, it's more A Song Of Ice And Fire.

Can't a democracy vote and agree to kill innocent people abroad? Not sure those things are discordant.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#448
post #13

I’ve owned a lot of Gopro cameras, having done video capture for a variety of motorsports, and they just got too expensive for what you get. You can be more expensive if you’re better, or you can be worse if you’re cheaper, but they’re both the downsides while living purely off brand recognition. They also blew up in a time where there wasn’t any real competition. Sony had action cameras but they were bulkier and exp…

GoPro is a US company designed in U.S. with manufacturing in Thailand, China, and Mexico. Insta360 is a Chinese company designed in Shenzhen and built there, too. People think this doesn’t matter, but GoPros are used all over in aerospace. If we replaced the brand with Insta360, that puts a big attack vector all over the place. A similar pattern happened with drones with DJI, intentionally killing all non-Chinese dro…

Sounds like a problem for America. And totally irrelevant to the state of GoPro the company. It sounds like you're advocating for corporate welfare on the basis that a failing company is "based in" USA, even though their most impactful operations are overseas.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#449
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't read this seriously while being unable to buy any Chinese EVs here in the US.

You can't buy Chinese EVs in the US because China is overtly running a dumping campaign for them. It's an interesting story, read up on it!

[flagged]

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#450
post #13

I’ve owned a lot of Gopro cameras, having done video capture for a variety of motorsports, and they just got too expensive for what you get. You can be more expensive if you’re better, or you can be worse if you’re cheaper, but they’re both the downsides while living purely off brand recognition. They also blew up in a time where there wasn’t any real competition. Sony had action cameras but they were bulkier and exp…

GoPro is a US company designed in U.S. with manufacturing in Thailand, China, and Mexico. Insta360 is a Chinese company designed in Shenzhen and built there, too. People think this doesn’t matter, but GoPros are used all over in aerospace. If we replaced the brand with Insta360, that puts a big attack vector all over the place. A similar pattern happened with drones with DJI, intentionally killing all non-Chinese dro…

GoPro has been “in trouble” for years and years. All of that may be true but they just haven’t justified their survival. They may well be better off selling to Garmin or another domestic air defense vendor and be done in the consumer market.

FWIW current administration wants to play this same game, but they def won’t do it as well.

Post reply on HN