- Insta360 gave away gold keys worth $45,000 each to its best employees
- Since 2019, more than fifty golden keys have been delivered
- Employees once received gold bars, coins and stickers as celebratory gifts.
Popular webcam maker Insta360 has turned workplace rewards into a spectacle with another excellent round of giveaways.
The Shenzhen-based imaging company recently handed out gold keys valued at up to $45,000 each to select employees during China’s “Programmer’s Day.”
The move marks the continuation of a tradition that began four years ago and in which more than fifty awards of this type have been awarded.
A work tradition bathed in gold
As the price of gold has risen, so has the value of gifts, making each year’s celebration a topic of conversation throughout China’s tech industry.
What might seem like a marketing gimmick has actually become part of what observers now call an established gold culture within the company.
Past celebrations have included a 50-gram pure gold bar awarded to a competition winner and a gold coin awarded to a newlywed employee couple.
Even the interns received gold stickers during the company’s 10th anniversary in July 2025.
The pattern has earned Insta360 the local nickname “gold factory,” a title that confuses admiration with disbelief, and founder Liu Jingkang insists the symbolism is intentional, not excessive.
He says each golden key represents the idea that each keystroke “turns stone into gold,” linking reward to creative effort and innovation.
Liu believes gold conveys reliability and stability, characteristics he considers essential in both employees and technology.
To outsiders, however, the line between genuine appreciation and calculated branding seems increasingly thin.
Lavish gestures like these can build loyalty, but also invite scrutiny over whether such displays distract from the company’s long-term business focus.
Far from the glamor of precious metals, Insta360’s true strength lies in its imaging technology.
Its Insta360 Link is one of the best webcams for content creators with solid performance in video conferencing and online collaboration environments.
The company continues to push updates with AI-enhanced features that improve the user experience for professionals and hobbyists alike.
However, despite these technological advances, its gold-laden corporate image now risks overshadowing the innovation that made it successful.
Through Toms Hardware
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