SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Experience selling: In 2013 alone, GoPro customers uploaded 2.8-years’ worth of video featuring GoPro in the title, according to the company’s S-1 filing. Each video serves as a customer testimonial, giving potential customers millions of reasons why they should buy GoPro’s cameras

Product: Strong, durable cameras that can withstand extreme climate and ruggedness

Brand power: It became better known as an adventure sports brand than as a camera manufacture.

Weaknesses

Product-oriented sales: In its S-1, the company admitted that it depends on camera sales for substantially all of their revenue, and any decrease in the sales of these products would harm the business.

Lack of market: GoPro's biggest weakness is its lack of competitive barriers. Research firm IDC estimates that GoPro has a 47.5% market share in the action camera market, but the market is still young and fragmented. This means that smaller players will constantly try to launch cheaper devices to chip away at GoPro's market.

Service: GoPro is starting to turn itself into a media company. GoPro hopes to begin making money not just on cameras, but on the brand, too. To avoid saturating the market, GoPro launched the GoPro network but it is relying heavily on social networks and has to split its revenue with those partners.

Opportunities

User friendly software: While free editing software is the type of benefit that you get with GoPro, it’s also kind of complicated. Although the app does a decent job of walking you through basic steps, it’s not as easy as alternative editing software

Needs to cut cost to remain competitive: To preserve its margins, it needs huge manufacturing operations to produce more cameras quickly and cheaply. The company's bottom line can't hold up unless it cuts costs through major alliances with giants like Foxconn.

Threats

Growing competition: Garmin, Sony, Polaroid, HTCs

Substitute products: smartphones, tablets, hand held camcorders

Price: slightly higher than the competition and substitute products