903 million is the market cap of GoPro.

1.6 billion dollars was GoPro’s market cap on IPO day five years ago, in September of 2017.

GoPro as a stock is a failure, but the question is why and is it possible for a rebound?

Diving in, some financials on GoPro as a company.

1.18 billion dollars was the revenue in 2016.
1.16 billion was revenue in 2021.

A 1.7% decline in revenue over five years.

GoPro on a revenue level hasn’t grown and even declined a company, where they declined from the 2015 peak, having 1.6 billion in revenue.

Profit wise, things aren’t much better.

They made 371 million dollars in profit in 2021, which was the first time since 2015 the company made a profit, but that seems like a one time deal.

For 2022, profit has only been 6 million and 3 million for the first two quarters, which doesn’t mean an increase is impossible, but unlikely.

Sales in general are also down declines, moving only 3.1 million cameras in 2021, which is down from 6.5 million in 2015 and over a million less than 2019.

GoPro was also one of the worst hit electronics companies with COVID, seeing revenue drop 200 million from 2019 levels into 2020.

Big question though is what exactly happened to cause the plateau?

First factor, Apple.

GoPro’s peak year was 2015, but Apple released water resistant iphone’s in 2016.

Since that point, Apple has made phones more durable and accessory companies have gotten better with cases and stands, making GoPro less needed for casual people.

Second factor, market size.

Everyone has smart phones now, giving them access to cameras at increasingly good quality.

The active camera doesn’t seem to be that large, where it’s catering to people who hike, surf, mountain climb and do other things like that, while also being interested enough in it to photograph/video record it.

GoPro’s also aren’t like Apple products, where there’s a constantly evolving generation and many GoPro users from 2015 are happy enough with the camera to not upgrade.

This makes GoPro a niche market product and a niche it’s possible they already filled.

Third factor, lifestyle branding.

GoPro has focused an enormous amount of time and money into building apparel products, seeing it as a lifestyle and not a camera.

Even the GoPro subscription markets discounts on apparel as one of the biggest perks.

These are high margin products, but the issue is it seems people just don’t really care.

Ferrari makes 1.5-2 billion in merchandise yearly, selling everything from belts to hats to headphones and way more. It’s become a more profitable piece of their business over cars.

GoPro clearly tried to do that, but it doesn’t seem to have worked. People just don’t resonate around a camera the same way they do for a luxury sports car.

Looking at this, the question becomes is there away to fix GoPro?

Looked at the companies quarterly statements from leadership and the goal seems to be subscription.

GoPro now has 2 million subscribers, which costs $50 a year.

This though looks unlikely to be a real source of revenue for them.

GoPro Premium offers the following.

Unlimited cloud storage for photos/videos.
Discounts on new cameras.
Auto replacement for broken cameras.
Discounts on merchandise.

This really isn’t much.

Any serious person with a camera is likely already subscribed to Adobe or using FinalCut, which has cloud storage options.

Discounts on new cameras probably isn’t worth it, considering most GoPro users will have that camera for over three years before even considering replacing.

GoPro as a subscription seems just like a desperate attempt to be on the subscriber bandwagon.

Also, the two million subscriber number doesn’t seem like a huge deal, because they are offering GoPro Premium with sales on many new cameras.

So can it rebound?

My belief is the answer is yes, but current management, no.

GoPro has invested into a lot of product categories, but nothing feels like the right one.

Headphones
FitBit competitor
Functional merchandise in hiking, swimming and more.

GoPro never focused on taking the brand and moving into electronics which make sense for them.

It would make perfect sense that after buying a GoPro, they’d try to sell a product such as waterproof headphones or just some sort of smart watch, but haven’t.

The brand can clearly grow, but leadership seems like they either want to sell a camera or a t shirt and nothing in between, while hoping saying “subscription” enough will make them feel like a modern tech company.