131,000 Visitors, 825 Companies: Drone World Congress Soars to New Heights
Drone World Congress, China’s premier drone industry event, took place in Shenzhen from May 23 to 25, breaking records in scale, participation, and commercial activity. Spanning four exhibition halls and 66,000 square meters, the event drew 825 exhibitors and over 131,000 visitors. More than 5,000 products were on display, with the total value of signed contracts reaching 20 billion yuan—surpassing previous editions by a significant margin.
According to organizers, the exhibition area expanded by 88.6% compared to last year, while the number of participating companies grew by 76.3%. The surge in both exhibitor and visitor numbers reflects the rapid expansion and diversification of China’s unmanned systems sector.
A Comprehensive Showcase of the Drone Ecosystem
The exhibition covered the full spectrum of the drone industry—from upstream R&D and manufacturing to downstream training services and applications across various sectors. It highlighted recent innovations in low-altitude intelligent systems, eVTOL aircraft, AI-powered robotics, unmanned vehicles and ships, avionics, and embedded chips.
Featured technologies demonstrated real-world applications in emergency response, logistics, agricultural spraying, infrastructure inspection, wildfire monitoring, public safety, mapping, and low-altitude flight services. This comprehensive range reinforced the growing role of unmanned systems in both civilian and industrial domains.
Shenzhen: The Epicenter of Global Drone Innovation
China remains the world’s largest drone producer and consumer, accounting for 74% of global consumer drone sales and 55% of the industrial segment. Shenzhen, often referred to as the “drone capital” of the world, is home to more than 20,000 drone-related enterprises and generates over 100 billion yuan in annual output. It is also the birthplace of DJI, the global leader with an estimated 85% market share in consumer drones.
As such, the Drone World Congress serves not only as China’s flagship event, but as a bellwether for global trends in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology.
Cutting-Edge Exhibits and Global Collaboration
Many exhibitors unveiled their most advanced solutions, with a notable presence of emerging start-ups bringing novel technologies to market. Ms. Wang, business manager at a Shenzhen-based company specializing in drone countermeasure systems, shared that their offerings—including fixed and portable drone detectors, jamming systems, and vehicle-mounted interception devices—are already deployed to protect sensitive sites such as airports, government buildings, nuclear plants, and large dams.
Though this was her company’s first time exhibiting at the Congress, Ms. Wang has attended multiple editions in the past. “This year’s event is by far the largest I’ve seen, both in China and abroad,” she said. “We’ve engaged with numerous professional buyers, and we’ve already received serious interest from domestic and international partners. One major mining conglomerate has invited us to conduct a live demo of our anti-drone solutions at their copper mining site.”
International Visitors Seek Solutions for Harsh Environments
A Middle Eastern visitor, attending the Congress for the first time, said he was looking for drone-based inspection systems for his country’s oil and gas pipeline infrastructure. He emphasized the challenge of monitoring pipelines that stretch across vast, uninhabited desert terrain. Traditional inspection methods are costly, slow, and risky, especially under extreme weather conditions like sandstorms.
At the exhibition, he found a vendor offering an AI-driven solution that integrates fixed-wing and multi-rotor drones with zoom cameras and thermal imaging. This system, capable of 24/7 autonomous patrols, uses proprietary recognition and tracking algorithms to identify potential leaks or tampering in real time. The visitor confirmed that he has already placed an initial prototype order.
eVTOL Takes Center Stage
Another major focus of the event was electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, a key component of the emerging low-altitude economy. Several booths drew large crowds, showcasing both conceptual and production-ready models. One company presented a manned, UFO-shaped aircraft alongside a sleek 7-seat business jet eVTOL resembling a compact commercial airliner. Another exhibitor revealed a maritime drone deployment unit—a compact cabin designed to house and launch four fixed-wing drones, complete with integrated communications systems for rapid mission readiness.
Yang Jincai, president of the Shenzhen UAV Association, noted the sharp growth in this sector: “There are now over 300 eVTOL companies worldwide. In 2023, China’s eVTOL market was valued at 1 billion yuan. That figure is expected to double in 2024 and could surpass 10 billion yuan by 2026, with growth concentrated in southern, eastern, and northern regions of the country.”
