Drone Industry Barometer 2022
Drone Industry Barometer 2022
Drone Industry Barometer 2022
Authors:
Kay Wackwitz
Zahra Lotfi
©2022 Drone Industry Insights,
Ed Alvarado
Hamburg, Germany, all rights reserved
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4
INTRODUCTORY FACTS OF THE DRONE INDUSTRY BAROMETER 5
DRONE OPERATION 7
EXPECTATIONS VS. REALITY 9
MARKET DEVELOPMENTS BREAKDOWN 10
THE IMPACT OF THE CORONAVIRUS 13
RESOURCES 15
DRIVING FACTORS IN A DYNAMIC MARKET 17
ABOUT 18
TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Most Represented Countries on Drone Industry Barometer Survey 5
Figure 2: Company Size of Respondents 5
Figure 3: Survey Respondents by Market Segment 5
Figure 4: Main Applied Methods 7
Figure 5: Reasons for Adopting Drones 7
Figure 6: Market Development in the Next 12 Months and Their Reflections on the Past 12 Months 9
Figure 7: Market Development in the Last 12 Months by Market Segment 10
Figure 8: Market Development in the Next 12 Months by Market Segment 11
Figure 9: Business Impact of the Coronavirus Crisis 13
Figure 10: Survey Respondents’ Answers to What They Allocate Their Resources To 15
Figure 11: Survey Respondents’ Assessment of the Most Important Market-Driving Actors in the Drone Industry 17
3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Another year brings another edition of our annual Drone In terms of expectations, last year we saw remarkable optimism
Industry Barometer. Given the way the world economy has from drone companies whose expectations for the coming year
picked up after two years of on-and-off lockdowns and were as high as ever. Unfortunately, these expectations turned
restrictions, this year’s Barometer is able to gauge industry out to be rather unrealistic and companies experienced the
opinions before, during, and after the pandemic. lowest-rated year since 2018. It is likely that these two are
correlated and the unfulfillment of extremely high expectations
Much like in 2021, this year’s barometer had a strong showing
caused an equally large disappointment that caused a large gap
by Asian countries. However, where China was the top Asian
between expectations and reality.
country last year, this year it was Japan that provided a huge
amount of responses, followed closely by the US. Based on Nevertheless, the impact of the pandemic has largely subsided.
data published in our yearly Drone Market Report, the US and More and more companies are reporting "no impact on my
Japan are among the strongest commercial markets in the business" or other negative effects such as layoffs and drop in
world, and other countries in the top ten markets (e.g. Germany, demand (p.13). Though it cannot be said that everything is back
South Korea, and the UK) were also in the top 10 of to "business as usual", business operations are still more
respondents for the Barometer. So once again, the data and normal than they were the previous two years.
opinions correspond well with the overall global market.
Since the start of our Barometer, we have seen less and less
This year’s question about drone operation methods was quite focus on product development and an increased focus in
different in comparison with last year. Participants in this marketing & sales as well as staff development. Meanwhile, the
Barometer chose their main applied method per industry. Based focus [and pressure] as most important market-driving actor
on the responses, Photography & Filming is the most applied continues to rest on rule-making authorities. (despite plenty of
method among all companies in different industries, followed by progress in drone regulation).
Mapping & Surveying and then Inspection.
In conclusion, the 2022 Barometer provides the latest and most
When it comes to the reasons to adopt drones, this year’s comprehensive view of the global post-pandemic drone market.
question also has a slightly more nuanced [and interesting] Despite the challenges that this unforeseen event presented for
approach. The 4 top options remained the same, but instead of companies all around the globe, the industry as a whole has
only asking participants to choose between “not important”, proven its adaptability, resilience and bright future ahead.
“important” and “very important”, we added two intermediary
options, which made for a much more interesting angle on
which of these may be most or least important (p. 7).
4
INTRODUCTORY FACTS OF THE DRONE INDUSTRY BAROMETER
Our 5th annual drone industry survey took place in June 2022 to We received responses from 81 countries, with Japan leading
measure changes in the opinions and perceptions of drone by having provided 351 responses alone. Overall, the drone
companies towards the commercial drone market. Over the industry still seems to be more driven by start-ups and SMEs.
course of five weeks, we collected 891 survey responses which Most of the companies that responded are small-sized
represents a 31% increase compared to 2021 (which had 678 companies with less than 10 employees (48%), followed by
responses). The survey was distributed via the Drone Industry companies with a size between 11 and 50 employees (24%).
Insights newsletter and social media accounts, as well as other The top 10 most-represented countries (see table below)
supporting partners. account for 71% of all answers.
Japan
429
United States
Germany
South Korea
Spain
214
United Kingdom
India
Australia 96
49
Switzerland 30
24 24 16 9
France
1-10 11-50 51-200 201-500 501-1000 1001-2500 2501 -5000 5001-10000 >10000
Survey Respondents By Market Segments The share of responses in the service segment increased a
substantial amount in comparison to last year (2021: 69%).
Within the service segment, drone service providers show an
Services 83% overall share of 33% (vs internal services, training, etc).
Definitions:
Segment Sub-Segment Examples
Hardware: Platform and components, counter-drone system and eVTOL/passenger drone manufacturers, etc.
Software: Manufacturers of software for UTM, flight-, fleet- & operation management, data analysis, etc.
Services: Drone service providers (DSP), drone operators for business-internal services (BIS), training, education,
insurance, research, engineering, reseller, maintenance, etc.
5
When it comes to application methods,
the share of inspections is 21% for
DSPs while is only 8% for BIS.
6
DRONE OPERATION
This year we asked companies in which industries they operate company. Furthermore, the share of this method is roughly
drones and what method they use most during their drone the same for both DSPs and BIS at around 30% .
applications. These companies are all either drone service
▪ Inspection is the method that DSPs applied more than BIS in
providers (DSP) or business-internal services (BIS). DSPs are
different industries. As can be seen in the graph, the share
third-party service companies whose business is to offer drone
of Inspections is 21% for DSPs while is only 8% for BIS.
services to clients from all kinds of industries like energy,
construction or agriculture. BIS are mainly companies operating ▪ The shares of the remaining methods: Localization &
drones in-house and do not offer services to third parties. Tracking, Delivery and Spraying & Dispensing are between
3% - 5% for both, DSPs and BIS.
The most relevant findings are:
▪ It should be mentioned that this year’s question about drone
▪ Photography & Filming is the most applied method among
operation methods is different from last year, thus the results
the companies in different industries. The share of this
are not comparable to the last year.
method is 48% for BIS companies and 33% for DSPs.
48%
8% 5%
3% 3% 4% 4% 2% 3%
1%
Inspection Mapping & Photography & Localization & Delivery Spraying & Other
Surveying Filming Tracking Dispensing
7
From 2018 to 2020, the trend of
expectations and reality converged.
However, in 2021, the gap between
expectation and experience increased
again by a substantial amount.
8
EXPECTATIONS VS. REALITY
Another aspect that the Barometer seeks to measure is except in 2021, where the expectations increased significantly.
companies’ expectations of the drone market. Therefore, the
When it came to expectations for the 12 months ahead,
graph below shows the comparison of how the respondents’
respondents from 2018 were much more optimistic (7.3) than
expectations match with the reality from different perspectives
respondents in 2019 (6.6), who were in turn more optimistic
(ex ante vs. ex post of the respective year). The market
than in 2020 (6.3). In 2021, the optimism came back (7.2) and
development is defined based on the companies’ sales growth.
respondents expected more growth for their next 12 months.
The past four years of surveying show that each year, drone
However, the optimism declined again in 2022 and the
industry expectations (blue bubbles) somewhat decrease
respondents' expectations for upcoming 12 months is 6.3.
2022 6.3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Fig. 6: Market Development in the Next 12 Months and Their Reflections on the Past 12 Months (n=599)
In the chart above, the grey bubbles show how respondents experience increased again by a substantial amount. Though it
rated their previous 12 months. The decrease from 6.0 in 2020 is common for expectations to be higher than reality, the very
to 5.6 in 2021 suggests that last year was tough for the industry high level of expectations in 2021 may have led to the even
when compared to the expectations that companies had. lower perception of how the year went in retrospect.
9
MARKET DEVELOPMENTS BREAKDOWN
Companies in most market segments saw a lower level of than the ones before (with score changing from 5.9 in 2021 to
market development during the last 12 months and their scores 7.0 in 2022).
decreased in comparison with the last year.
Overall, most sub-segments experienced a lower growth if we
Passenger drone manufacturers seem to be not happy with how compare their development to the last year (with the exception
the last year turned out. The score decreased from 6.3 in 2021 of counter drone manufacturers and drone training &
to 5.0 this year. education).
Counter-Drone System
5.65.9 7.0
Manufacturer
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Hardware
Passenger Drone
5.0
5.0 6.3
Manufacturer
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Services
Drone Service Provider 5.4
5.6 6.2
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10
MARKET DEVELOPMENTS BREAKDOWN
Hardware
Passenger Drone
5.0 6.6 7.0
Manufacturer
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Counter-Drone System
6.0 6.5 7.5
Manufacturer
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
As we saw before, the overall drone market’s expectation for especially for BIS whose expectations declined substantially
the coming year decreased from an average of 7.2 in 2021 to from 6.9 in 2021 to 5.4 in 2022, which was the highest decrease
an average of 6.3 in 2022. This trend is also observable in from one year to the next (alongside counter-drone in the
individual market segments. hardware sector).
The figure shows that most market segments are more Software manufacturers are in a more stable position, as their
pessimistic than last year. However, drone manufacturers and expectations have not changed substantially in three years.
drone components manufacturers are the most positive about
the market development and they are the only one whose
expectations rose in comparison to last year.
11
Overall, it can be said that the negative
effects of the pandemic have mostly
subsided.
12
THE IMPACT OF THE CORONAVIRUS
After more than two years since the start of the pandemic, fewer More companies also stated that the pandemic had no impact
companies experienced a drop in demand (33% in 2022 vs. on their business (31% vs 19% in 2020). All of this could be a
35% in 2021 and 43% in 2020). Production/operation shutdown sign that companies found a way to adjust so that there would
also went down to 15% this year (2021: 21%; 2020: 33%) and be less impact by the virus and its consequences. Some
staff layoffs declined to 9% in 2022 (2020: 16%). So overall it companies used the lockdowns to further develop and sharpen
can be said that the negative effects of the pandemic have their products and services.
mostly subsided.
19%
No impact on my business 29%
31%
27%
Reorienting of business model 27%
22%
15%
Increase in demand 23%
15%
16%
9% Staff layoffs/downsizing
9%
33%
Production/Operations
21%
shutdown or decrease staff
15%
43%
2020
35% Drop in demand 2021
33% 2022
13
Over the past years, we have seen a
steady pattern on how companies
choose to prioritize the allocation of
their resources.
14
RESOURCES
In order to achieve the most efficient and economically- we asked them what they prioritize when it comes to resource-
optimized use of resources, these resources must be distributed allocation. Their resource distribution priorities are shown in
meaningfully, especially in a time of crisis. Therefore, to see Figure 10 below.
what drone companies are investing their time and energy in,
What will you prioritise in your resource spending in the next 12 months?
(Multiple selection possible)
29%29%
27%
26%
20% 20%
19% 19%
18%
16%16% 16% 16%
15% 15% 15% 15%
13%
12%12% 12%
11% 11%
8% 9%
6% 6%
5%
Marketing & Sales Staff Development Product Development Finances & Funding Product Development Other
(software) (hardware)
Fig. 10: Survey Respondents’ Answers to What They Allocate Their Resources To (multiple answers possible, n=599)
Over the past years, we have seen a steady pattern on how need the right personnel, and it is now more important than ever
companies choose to prioritize the allocation of their resources. to prioritize staff development given the increased level of
The drone industry has continued to mature through a point competition to find the right people with the right qualifications.
where the focus is on advertising and selling refined products
Given the increased importance of marketing, it is also no
and services rather than developing them.
surprising to see that the importance of product development
Marketing & sales remains the leading priority for the next 12 (both hardware and software) has been cut in half since 2018.
months, as it has been in the previous four years. Most Four years ago, hardware development took priority for 26% of
importantly, the level of importance in marketing has tripled respondents and software development was at 32% (which
since 2018, and this may be caused by two key reasons. One is were both higher than marketing at 11%), yet now they are at
the fact that the drone industry is highly innovative and 12% and 16% respectively while marketing & sales has boomed
exploratory, so it relies on events and shows that could not or to 33%.
did not take place over the past couple of years. Therefore,
Companies’ prioritization of resources focuses on finances &
companies had to invest a lot more on marketing in order to
funding has increased slowly over the past years, but it would
showcase their products. Another key reason is the amount of
also be accurate to say that it’s remained more or less steady.
sophisticated hardware and software that already exists, which
means that companies must focus more on their USP (Unique Lastly, the ‘Other’ category includes developing partnerships,
Selling Point) and therefore need to prioritize their international cooperation, facility expansion, business
communications and marketing. development, etc. Yet these remain of less consequence and
priority for drone companies all around the globe.
The second-highest priority after marketing & sales is staff
development. This result is in line with our recent study about
drone jobs which showed growing number of drone jobs over
the past years. In order for drone companies to succeed, they
15
Once again, the top market-driving factor
according to participants is rule-making
authorities.
16
DRIVING FACTORS IN A DYNAMIC MARKET
How does the global drone industry move forward? Once again, operate drones. As has been mentioned in other sections of this
the top market-driving factor according to participants is rule- Barometer, the drone industry has matured to a point where
making authorities. Although the percentage share is lower than drone operators have become increasingly more important. So
in previous years, it is worth mentioning that this year we have we can expect this pattern to continue in the coming years.
added a new actor, which affects the distribution and lowers the
This year we also added drone associations to the list of most
percentages for responses from the previous years. Here are
important market-driving actors. As can be seen in the results,
some of the key insights about all of these actors.
they are perceived as the fifth most important market driving
Clear roadmaps and regulatory frameworks have become the actor, ahead of JARUS, ASTM and other organizations for
key focus for everyone who makes, sells, uses, or is in any way safety concepts. Drone associations have become an
involved with drones. Companies need regulations in place to increasingly important actor to understand a country’s unique
scale their business within the commercial drone space, while drone market and they can also help companies come together
operators need to know what is or isn’t allowed and how to go for lobbying or motivating rule-making authorities to establish
about carrying out all sorts of activities. Whether it’s inspecting necessary regulations sooner. This can also explain why safety-
infrastructures, delivering goods, or even flying people, concept organizations are less influential, since they are mostly
regulatory bodies will remain in the spotlight for the relevant for advanced operations and the majority of operators
development of the industry. find the current system as sufficient.
Slightly behind regulators, we find both hardware (44%) and Market driving actors in “other” category include customers/end-
operators/DSPs (43%), which are those who directly make or user, adoption of BVLOS, technology applicator, etc.
Market-driving factors
(Multiple selection possible)
0%
43%
2018 Rule-making authorities 49%
53%
2019 45%
2020
2021 47%
2022 34%
Drone manufacturers 35%
53%
44%
30%
32%
Operator/Drone-as-a-Service provider 37%
43%
43%
42%
31%
Software manufacturers 28%
35%
27%
0%
0%
1
Drone Association 0%
0%
18%
42%
31%
Organizations of safety concepts for drone design and operation 28%
23%
15%
0%
8%
Other 6%
7%
5%
Fig. 11: Survey Respondents’ Assessment of the Most Important Market-Driving Actors in the Drone Industry (multiple answers possible; n=599)
1Drone Association was not included as an option in industry barometer survey in previous years.
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ABOUT
The study was conducted from the end of May 2022 until the end of June 2022 and distributed by industry partners, drone coalitions,
alliances and initiatives around the world.
DRONEII.com is the leading market research and analytics company for commercial drones. Their core business is to create new
knowledge in the field of unmanned systems. Their comprehensive understanding of the commercial drone market combined with a
global view enables them to create industry reports and bespoke market studies. Combined they have more than 40 years of
experience in manned and unmanned aviation and other relevant industries.
All images used in this report are license free or acquired and used for illustration purposes only. Cover Photo by: Quang Nguyen Vinh from Pexels
Astra Tower, 6th floor, Zirkusweg 2, 20359 Hamburg, Germany | www.droneii.com | LinkedIn | Twitter
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