(File photo)

Drone manufacturer DJI has nearly realized its ambition of topping 10 billion RMB in global sales by the end of 2016, which will be an increase of 60 percent year on year, according to a vice president of the company.

Some 80 percent of DJI drones were sold overseas. A number of retailers, including Apple, also sold DJI drones, DJI vice president Xu Huabin said in an interview with Thepaper.cn.

"Customers tend to buy DJI when they shop for a drone at Best Buy in the U.S. It is comparable to how we prefer iPhones. This makes me feel very proud and inspired," Wang Tao, founder and CEO of DJI, was quoted as saying at a September conference in Shenzhen.

Sales of DJI drones have been rising steeply in recent years. By 2015, the sales volume was 100 times that of 2011. This sharp increase can be attributed to the expansion of assembly lines used in DJI drone factories, Xu noted.

The company, headquarted in Shenzhen, also has five offices in the U.S., three in Europe and one each in Japan and South Korea.

According to Xu, DJI has sped up its market expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. Since last December, the company has unveiled flagship stores in Shenzhen, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai, all in the respective city centers.