GoPro: Dominating the Point Of View Market

While there are many small cameras that are wearable and great for POV filming, no company is dominating the market as much as GoPro. While technical cameraphiles may debate the quality of manufacturing or image, everyone would agree they know their marketing. The company can be said to have the most active and most engaged fanbase of any consumer brand on Facebook, Followers upload hundreds of posts per day, growing by 35K people, 50K+ discussions and 27 million views per week.

Nick Woodman created the company in 2002 while on an Australia surfing trip. He reports that he was frustrated by the lack of passion and drama that amateur photographers and surfers could generate without millions of dollars worth of equipment, sets, lights and skill/knowledge. As is the case with capitalism, after the frustration of a go-getter comes a marketable product. The soon-to-be GoPro CEO began raising money for his company by selling bead belts out of his VW van. So much for the multi-million dollar venture capital market. While making these strings of beads, he came up with the additional idea of making sure the camera had a high quality, fashionable strap. He finally sold his first camera -- a 35 mm film version in 2004 and soon went digital, progressing to 170 degree angle, 1080p broadcast quality.

The fans went wild, taking it from the surfing world to serve as a helmet camera for motocross, snowboarding, bicycling and anything humans do to go faster or higher than Mother Nature intended. Nick Woodman continues to surf while he has branched into other ventures including collaboration with Walt Disney Corp and the acquisition of cutting edge technology such as the CineForm 444 Codec. This resource allows for quicker and easier HD and 3D editing. It was used very well in the film Slumdog Millionaire.

After watching some of the extraordinary POV films from skydivers, scuba divers and cliff jumpers, people from all walks of life run out to buy their helmet camera and try to become the next Spielberg or Michael Bay. With a good system starting at around $200, Woodman has put his passion into nearly anyone’s hands who wants one. With the world’s obsession with youtube and facebook, Woodman has created a relentless flow of selling cameras, having people doing and filming extreme, nutty things and uploading them to various sites, causing more people to see his product and try something nuttier. Generally within 10 minutes of someone posting a video to GoPro’s facebook page, it gets kicked off by a more popular upload. Fame indeed is fleeting.

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