(Yicai Global) March 9 -- North America is still DJI Technology's biggest market, the Chinese drone giant said while declining to comment on a media report that claimed it had lost a third of its staff in the region last year amid a US purchasing ban.

“We want to thank all the affected employees for their contributions to the firm and will continue to serve our customers and cooperate with our partners,” the Shenzhen-based company told Yicai Global yesterday.

Reuters reported earlier that day, citing three former and one current employee, that about one-third of DJI's staff in North America were let go or resigned in 2020. The head of research and development at its Palo Alto research center left in February, so the firm subsequently laid off the remaining R&D staff, the report said.

Last December, the US Commerce Department added DJI to its so-called Entity List, which prohibits it from buying US-made technologies, citing national security concerns. In May 2019, the US Department of Homeland Security warned American companies about potential data leaks from Chinese drones.

DJI lost many R&D talents in North America largely because of global uncertainties, an industry insider, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Yicai Global.

Privately held DJI had been growing rapidly in the US. Sales jumped about 30 percent last year, the company told Yicai Global. It once had a more than 70 percent market share in the States. It has 200 employees in North America, out of a total of 14,000 worldwide. 

DJI's revenue surged to CNY17.6 billion (USD2.7 billion) in 2017, after having almost doubling every year since 2014, according to publicly available information.

US restrictions on technology trade with China may cost the United States its leading position in the chip industry, according to a previous report from Boston Consulting Group. If the US completely banned semiconductor companies from selling to Chinese clients, the chipmakers could suffer a 37 percent cut in revenue, BCG said.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi