The competition of Makerathon is underway.( Photo: CGTN)

In the US and China, start-ups are considered among the most innovative, dynamic and energetic sectors in any economy. 

Shenzhen – in south China’s Greater Bay Area – is considered the country’s Silicon Valley. And in the city, a group of young people are starting an engineering competition called “Makerathon” — a marathon for makers.

These contestants will test their wits – and endurance – and build a robot in 24 hours without sleep.

“Human evolution is driven by creativity. And what we’re doing is to help more people explore their potential to create,” the competition organizer told CGTN.

This competition is an annual event organized by a start-up called Makeblock, a global leader in robotics and education.

The company’s founder, Jasen Wang, has some questions for his US counterparts.

“What are the hottest start-up areas right now in the US? And what are the new generation of American entrepreneurs thinking at the moment?” 

Lots of unicorns like Uber, Lyft, and Dropbox are located in the Soma District in San Francisco.

And also in Soma, an incubator called OnePiece Work is trying to cultivate the next big name. Ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) to big data, over 200 companies are now registered here.

The incubator was founded by Guo Wei, a Silicon Valley-based angel investor who has financed over 300 start-ups across China and the US.

Guo listed four of the most popular areas in the US for start-ups: “Software for business, biotech, space tech, and blockchain. And the US startups tend to focus more on one certain industry or certain product.”

 Apparently, start-ups in China and the US have already reached some consensus on one technology at least: Blockchain.

However, Jasen Wang is highly skeptical of the current Internet finance fever heating up in the two countries.

Wang said, “now P2P financing, internet finance and the blockchain are definitely the hottest in China. But, I think many of those startups are just doing usury. Of course it can make quick money, but it’s not valuable to the society.”

Though Silicon Valley has a booming business in space tech and biotech, most of the start-ups here are still somewhat “soft” when compared to their Chinese counterparts.

Guo Wei said the trend of doing smart software is going down in the Silicon Valley. “The cost of building hardware is so expensive that I don’t think the startups in the US have the opportunity to do that.”

China, on the other hand, has been the world’s factory for decades. Making hardware is exactly what the Chinese companies are good at.

Wang himself is a beneficiary of China’s comprehensive supply chain. He said, “China’s supply chain brings a special advantage in the field that requires combination of software and hardware. In terms of making hardware products, we’re much more competitive than overseas players.”

But it seems in both countries, start-ups are facing some of the same problems. When tech companies cluster in hubs like Silicon Valley it drives up the cost of living.

According to Guo, Silicon Valley has already become “centralized”. He added that young people here are not able to afford the high cost of living there. 

San Francisco and Shenzhen are both facing the problem of losing their tech talents due to soaring cost of living /CGTN Photo

According to Ineed.com, the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is around 3,000 US dollars and 2,500 US dollars in San Jose, while the national average is only around 1,200 US dollars.

Mercury News said the Bay Area’s soaring living costs and competition from well-paying giants such as Google and Facebook is pushing the salary expectations higher and higher. That has made it too expensive for an increasing number of local startups to hire employees in the Bay Area.

And in China’s Silicon Valley, Shenzhen, sky-rocketing housing prices are also making giants like Tencent and Huawei open satellite operations in the cheaper neighboring regions.

Wang admits that big name companies like Alibaba and Tencent are growing bigger and stronger, with an annual growth rate of 30-40 percent. “That, in fact, leaves a smaller market for the start-ups,” Wang added.