Why Insta360 rewards staff with real gold keycaps worth $45k

Chinese company Insta360, a well-known maker of action cameras and imaging technology, is sticking with an unusual tradition: rewarding top performers with keycaps made of real gold. SCMP reports that handing out these gilded keycaps has become a signature annual ritual running for about four years. Last month, on Programmers’ Day, the company presented 21 gold keycaps, each valued at up to $45,000. The gesture is hard to miss.

Since the tradition began, Insta360 has awarded 55 gold keycaps. As gold prices have climbed, the gifts have become even more expensive, with their value now more than double what it was when the practice started.

The company’s so‑called gold culture has spread well beyond keyboards. According to SCMP, last year the winner of a company contest received a 50-gram gold bar, and a newly married employee couple was given a gold coin. In July, marking the firm’s 10th anniversary, Insta360 gave every employee — interns included — a set of stickers made of pure gold. Locals have taken to calling the firm a gold factory.

Founder Liu Jingkang says the gold keycaps are meant to symbolize turning work into value — the idea that every keystroke turns stone into gold — and he emphasized that gold, to him, stands for stability and reliability. Judging by staff reactions, the message seems to land: one employee said he would work even harder to decorate his keyboard with gold keys. As internal branding goes, it neatly ties effort to something you can literally touch.