Published : 23/12/2025
DJI, the Chinese drone brand commanding over 70% of the global civilian drone market, is arguably a household name.
The brand's ascent from a small workshop in Shenzhen to the king of the drone market is largely attributed to the perfectionist character of its founder, Wang Tao. Rarely seen in public, he consistently delivers one surprise after another to the drone market.
Wang Tao is grateful for cultivation by HKUST
Wang Tao (汪濤) once said, if he had not gone to Hong Kong, had not enrolled at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), he would not have achieved what he has today; if he had remained in the Chinese Mainland or had gone to the United States, he would not have founded DJI (大疆) and engaged in innovative technology.
This new leader in China's technology sector is often grateful for the cultivation he received from the HKUST.
Like many of the new generation of Chinese technology leaders, Wang Tao is from the post-1980s generation. And like most of the post-1980s generation, he was inspired by life to embark on the path of innovative technology.
When he was less than 10 years old, Wang was inspired by a red helicopter in a science comic book and developed a dream of building a helicopter himself. This dream never died, even after he was admitted to the Department of Electronics at East China Normal University (ECNU) in 2001.
In his third year of study at ECNU, Wang resolutely dropped out. This young man, who would later become a benchmark figure in China's technological innovation, applied for admission to his preferred universities, Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
But with his above-average grades, he was rejected by both, ultimately only receiving an offer of admission from the HKUST.
Ggiving rise to a new Chinese tech product
Although his dream of attending a top university was shattered, Wang Tao continued his flying dream at HKUST.
During his time at the university, he participated in two robotics competitions, winning the championship in Hong Kong and third place in the Asia-Pacific region.
During the research and development phase, even crashing multiple model aircraft and being cut by rotating propellers, which left a scar on his palm, did not deter Wang Tao from pursuing his flying dream.
As graduation approached, Wang Tao, for the sake of his interest, went to great lengths to persuade his university professor, hoping to decide on the topic of his graduation thesis himself. In the end, Wang got his wish, receiving the professor's approval to set his graduation research on the development of a flight control system for a remote-controlled helicopter.
Wang Tao even successfully applied for 18,000 RMB in research funding from the university, after which he began five months of research, working late every night until 5 a.m.
Unfortunately, when it was time to present his research, the remote-controlled aircraft still fell from the sky. The automatic hovering technology that Wang Tao had always hoped to achieve, which would allow the aircraft to stop at any time in mid-air, was still not successful. And his graduation project only received a C.
Although the research project ended in failure, God opened another door for him.
Wang Tao's persistence caught the attention of Professor Li Zexiang (李澤湘) of the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at the HKUST. With Professor Li's recommendation, Wang Tao was admitted into a two-year postgraduate master's programme.
A new star in China's tech world creates the perfect product
At this time, besides continuing his studies, Wang Tao also started a business. After raising funds of 2 million RMB, he and two classmates went to Shenzhen, where they rented a small warehouse and founded DJI Innovations.
In the beginning, DJI gave no thought at all to commercial competition, and only wanted to create a perfect product.
Because Wang Tao was very focused and persistent in his R&D work, for a period of time he even required his partners to fill in "time sheets", which meant reporting what they did every hour, something that his partners, and even the employees who joined later, could not stand.
What's more, as Wang liked to work at night, he would seek out colleagues to discuss his ideas whenever he had them, putting his colleagues under immense pressure, and they eventually left one after another.
Wang Tao himself has also admitted that he is a perfectionist, and this often causes a lot of friction when he communicates with others.
It has been reported that Wang Tao has strict requirements for product details. For example, for the tightness of a screw, he would personally inform employees of the exact degree to which it should be tightened, striving for perfection.
But it is precisely this persistence that has enabled him to insist on making the best products.
According to estimates by investment bank Goldman Sachs, between 2016 and 2020, global consumer spending on civilian drones reached as high as 780 billion HKD. With DJI's market share reaching 70 to 80%, it is undoubtedly the number one in the drone market.
DJI's success is inseparable from Wang Tao's persistence. In the face of increasingly fierce competition, Wang Tao and DJI have always insisted on perfecting their products and pursuing the most perfect designs.
DJI may not be the most profitable Chinese tech company, but Wang Tao will certainly be one of the most successful technological innovators in China's tech world. It is his obsession with his products that has led to DJI gaining worldwide recognition.