Who Owns Insta360 And Where Are The Cameras Made?

If social media and influencer culture have been good for any industry, it would have to be cameras. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok beg users to capture the world for all to see, whether it's through ridiculous stunts, random acts of kindness, scripted skits, or outlandish adventures. At the center of every parkour video and trending challenge post, a camera is there to absorb the moment so it can be replayed for all the world to witness. That sounds like a pretty hefty undertaking, which is why you may tend to see the same camera brands being trusted.

Among the more common is Insta360, a relatively new entry in the camera scene behind the revered 8K recordings of the Insta360 X4. Introduced in 2015, nine years after GoPro came onto the market with a 35mm GoPro Hero, Insta360 rapidly expanded to eventually establish a product base of more than a dozen handheld, miniature, or action cameras. According to the Insta360 website, the goal of the brand was to develop a 360-degree camera that could capture panoramic videos to pull viewers into the action. Today, it continues to improve upon the concept in offices based in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Berlin, Shenzhen, and Tokyo.

Though Insta360 expanded into those territories, none of them are where the company was established. Nor are they where the cameras are manufactured. For those locations, we'll need to look across the Atlantic.

Unlike the known practice of some American companies, Insta360 isn't an American-made brand outsourcing its manufacturing to another country. While you'll find local corporations like Apple moving the assembly of products like the iPhone to China, that isn't quite the case for the camera manufacturer. That's because Insta360 is already a Chinese company doing business under the name Arashi Vision, Inc. out of Shenzhen. Before becoming as big as it is today, though, Insta360 was a concept that took shape in a dorm room on the Nanjing University campus.

When JK Liu conceived of the idea for the 360-degree camera, panoramic video wasn't common among casual videographers, as the tools were still big and cumbersome. In 2015, after his graduation from Nanjing, Liu went to work on a user-friendly panoramic camera. The result was Insta360, which immediately found a home in Shenzhen, a district known for its thriving tech industry and access to components. Despite its growth after the Insta360 Nano premiered at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2017, the company kept its roots in Shenzen.

As of December 2024, JK Liu was still noted as the CEO of Arashi Vision and even earned a spot on Forbes 30 Under 30.

Considering all the production it takes on for the United States, it can be reasoned fairly simply that a China-based company would handle its own manufacturing. While not explicitly stated anywhere on the Insta360 website, the country of origin is mentioned on the Amazon listings of some of its cameras, like the tiny but serviceable Insta Go 3. Per the listing, Insta360 cameras are manufactured out of the company's parent country, China. While Amazon requires all companies to list the country of origin for products, it's not something that is necessarily verified. However, there's no real benefit for Insta360 to lie about China being the originating country.

As for the satellite offices outside of Shenzhen and China, they may not manufacture products, but they do serve a consumer-facing purpose. When searching for an Insta360 service center on the official website, most countries are directed to contact service centers in Hong Kong, Germany, California, and Japan. A select few, like the Philippines, are directed to contact a local company that seems unaffiliated with Insta360. For the Philippines, it's Agile Technologies' TekMage, an authorized repair service center located in Manila.