Industry and Market

Industry and Marketplace 

Summary and definition of the industry – GoPro is in the wearable technology industry.The industry is made up of businesses in manufacturing photographic apparatus, equipment, parts, attachments, and accessories in both still capture and motion capture photography. Also covered are photocopy and microfilm equipment. 

Shape of the Industry – Industry as a whole is currently down in the market. Industry statistics are; Price/Earnings – 70.5, Net Profit Margin – 8.6%, Return on Equity – 18.1%. GoPro is currently down 1.85% in the market (Yahoo Finance, 2015).

Development of the Industry – In 2006, GoPro was the breakthrough technology that opened up a whole new industry known as Wearable Photo/Video Capture. The first piece of technology was called GoPro Hero. Since then, multiple companies have put out products to compete in this industry. 

Marketplace 

GoPro is in the wearable technology and camera marketplace. GoPro is arguably the most successful and recognized brand in the world of consumer wearable video cameras. However, the wearable technology market is more than just sports cameras. Currently, this market consists of subcategories: action cameras, such as GoPro Hero C3+ and Garmin VIRB, Law enforcement wearable body cameras, such as Taser Axon, connected personal wearable cameras, such as MeCam and smart glasses, such as Google Glasses.

Current Condition of the Marketplace

According to PRNewswire, “The global wearable technology ecosystem's value was estimated to be more than $4 billion as of 2012, and is expected to reach $14 billion by 2018, growing at more than 18% from 2013 to 2018” (PRN, 2014). The current market for wearable technology shows significant promise and the conditions are predicted to continue improving in the future. 

Changes in the Marketplace 

There is an increasing demand and growing consumer adoption for wearable electronic devices. As for GoPro, this particular product has increased significantly in the last year and will likely continue in an upward trend. “GoPro's shares shot up 9.8 percent in extended trading on Thursday Feb 5, 2015. The stock has been on a tear, having doubled since its market debut in June. The company shipped 2.4 million cameras in the fourth quarter, helping boost revenue by 75.4 percent” (Patnaik, 2015).