GoPro announces the fourth quarter of 2018 & year-end settlement, fails with its first drone but recovers its share with a big hit of GoPro HERO 7

by Marco Verch

GoPro, known for the development and production of action cameras, announced results for the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2018 and for the full year of 2018. In 2017, Karma, our first drone, ended in failure, accounting for a loss of approximately 18 billion yen. However, in 2018, GoPro HERO 7 of the flagship model hit and it is doing good.

GoPro Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Results | GoPro Inc.
https://investor.gopro.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2019/GoPro-Announces-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2018-Results/default.aspx

GoPro turns its first profit since 2017, thanks to the Hero 7 - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/6/18214446/gopro-earnings-profit-hero-7-holiday-season

GoPro's revenue in the fourth quarter of 2018 was 137 million dollars (about 41 billion yen), an increase of 13% compared to the same period last year. The sales of GoPro HERO 7 released in September 2018 seemed to be very good, and overall camera sales in the fourth quarter of 2018 increased by 20% compared to the same period last year. The sales for the full year increased by 9% from the previous year, and the total sales were 1,150 million dollars (about 12.6 billion yen). Although the loss for the whole year is 94 million dollars (about 10 billion yen), about 40% can be reduced from the loss that was incurred in the previous year.

GoPro found out that there was a problem with the flight control device at GoPro's first drone "Karma" released in 2016, and recalled. In 2017 we rebuilt a new model, but it totally delayed in the market. As a result, we recorded a loss of $ 163 million (about 18 billion yen) in 2017.

Recall will be carried out at GoPro's first drone "Karma" - GIGAZINE

So, Nichlas Woodman, founder and CEO of GoPro, restructured the business four times, reduced the number of employees who had nearly 1,300 people to 891 people, closed the drone development department completely. Woodman says that GoPro HERO 7 was born by pouring development resources into the main action product, the action camera.

According to the survey, GoPro acquired 87% unit share in the action camera market in the fourth quarter of 2018. The top five sales positions of action cameras are GoPro's action cameras, the top three are GoPro HERO 7 It seems that it was black, silver and white. Also, GoPro Fusion gained 38% share of the celestial camera market. According to another survey, GoPro's camera seems to have acquired a 57% share in the action camera market in the fourth quarter of 2018, which is 7% higher than in the same period last year.

by Marco Verch

GoPro also develops GoPro Plus , a cloud storage service for $ 5 a month (about 550 yen), for the US only. It is said that subscribers of this pay plan are steadily increasing since it was 199,000 as of February 2019 and 185,000 at the end of the third quarter of 2018. In addition, GoPro announced that it will unlimitize the capacity of this cloud storage service in January 2019, so further growth is expected in the future.

In addition, GoPro announced that in the second quarter of 2019, the production base of GoPro camera for the American market will be transferred from China to Guadalajara , Mexico. The verge analyzed that there is a trade friction that is occurring between the United States and China, and this is increasing the production volume for the American market.

by Compudemano

Mr. Woodman said, "With the strong product lineup and steady operations, GoPro has increased both sales and market share in 2018. With this momentum and focus on continuing expense management, I am planning growth and profitability in 2019 as well. "