This paper presents a study of the maker movements in China and America concerning policy background, origins, features, and future trends. It finds that the maker movement in China has integrated with and could be supplemented to that of the US, promoted by the “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation” policy; and that a sharing/collaborative entrepreneurial model is becoming a catalyst for accelerating innovation and is helpful for a global innovation network and eco-system. Three suggestions are given for improving makers’ collaborations between China and the US. 
 
I.The policy background of the maker movement in China andAmerica 
"Maker” literally means "people who do things". It generally refers to the people who are concerned with creating a fun, unique technology products, with open network resources and shared hardware conditions. Its core elements involve at least five aspects; developing physical material; often grouping or arranging materials of different fields together; often crossing fields to seek solutions to different needs; using open source software and hardware to accelerate iteration speed; and posting the development results to the global community by sharing.[1-3]
In China, the maker movement has been developing for nearly 10 years. Since 2013, "Mass Entrepreneurship, and Innovation" policy and measures have been comprehensively promoted as an important part of innovation-driven development strategy; its main purpose is to stimulate the wisdom and creativity of hundreds of millions of people, eliminate various obstacles, promote the spirit ofinnovation and entrepreneurship, create a powerful new impetus for economic and social development[4-5].
At the heart of the Mass Entrepreneurship, and Innovation" policy are government reforms, such as streamlining administration, delegating power and optimizing services, as well as tax breaks for small and micro enterprises, and the establishment of a venture capital guidance fund to promote the "Internet plus" initiative and to implement“China made 2025”[6] and other policy measures. 
This series of major measures (see Figure 1), mobilize enthusiasm of the social groups for startups and innovation, helps to form ecological environments for startups and innovation and accelerates the emergence and development of maker movements.
Figure 1.  The four aspects of the "Mass Entrepreneurship, and Innovation" policy and specific measures
 
In the United States, a maker movement originated in the garage culture of do it yourself and other entrepreneurial behaviors during 1970s [1].Since the beginning of twenty-first century, the development of the Internetand cloud technology has lowered the threshold of digital technology entrepreneurship. Laser cutting, computer numerical control tools, 3D printers and other rapid-prototyped new technologies have dramaticallyreduced the startup cost of prototype designing and manufacturing. At the same time, fast and inexpensive testing, monitoring and personalized customization became available, which brought American manufacturers new advantages and opened a new model of startup and innovation in manufacturing industry [7]. 
The maker movement not only brought new business opportunities, it also creates new hires, and generated new opportunities in new industries. In 2011, a "Startup America" program was launched, which support the public innovation and entrepreneurship in the following 5 aspects; lower capital barriers to entry, an entrepreneurship training platform, reduced administrative obstacles, accelerate the transformation of innovation andrelease market vitality [8] (see figure 2). 
 In 2014 The White House designated June 18 as the official “National Day of Making” and hosted the first-ever “White House Maker Faire;. Making refers to a transformation in the American manufacturing industry, a change that can create new jobs in the next few decades and spawn new industries [9].
 
Figure 2. The five aspects of the startup America Initiative and specific measures
 
1.    Unlocking Access to Capital
l  $1 billion impact investment funds
l  $1 billionearly-stage investment funds
l  Opening up ACT JOBS *
l  Capital gains tax relief for small business investment
l  Simplifying the tax rebates for low-income groups
2.    Connecting Mentors
l  Matching clean energy startup companies and experienced mentors
l  Setting up incubators for veterans to set up high growth enterprises
l  Starting the national innovation and engineering entrepreneurship training center
l  Funding the National Clean Energy Student Entrepreneurship Competition
l  Promoting youth entrepreneurship education
3．Reducing Barriers
l  Attracting and retaining immigrant entrepreneurs
l  Reducing the student loans for young entrepreneurs
l  Contributing to innovative entrepreneurship access to seed funds
l  Speeding up patent applications
l  Promoting ACT SEA ** 
l  Establishing an entrepreneur's confiding mechanism
4. Accelerating Innovation
l  Directing federal agencies to accelerate research breakthroughs
l  Setting up an innovative team to help scientists start a business 
l  Starting a startup race to promote regional innovation
l  Helping high-growth enterprise clusters
l  Funding clean energy innovative ecosystems
l  Opening up federal technology for the top energy innovators of the future
l  Accelerating technology licensing for biomedical startups
l  Creating a new patent system
5. Unleashing Market Opportunities
l  Accelerating health, energy and education innovation
l  Opening energy data, cut electricity bills
l  Exposing education data
l  Opening Public health data
l  Creating a national platform for healthcare innovation
 
JOBS * Jumpstart Our Business Startups
SEA** Self-Employment Assistance
 
II. Chinese maker movement 
1. The rise and development
In 2008, SeeedStudio and DFRobot, the two world's top open source hardware suppliers, were founded in Shenzhen and Shanghai respectively. Driven by a number of open source hardware enthusiasts, the open source hardware communities came into being, and a new Chinese term "Chuang Ke" [1] corresponding to the English version “Maker” was coined and became popular.  In 2010, Dr. Li Dawei founded China's first makerspace, "New Workshop", in Shanghai, and them Chaihuo Makerspace in Shenzhen, Makerspace in Beijing were set up, one after the other. The pioneers of the makerspace were formerly suppliers of the open source hardware. In October 2011, at the first China Open Source Hardware Conference, the makers proposed hosting Chinese Maker Fair. The first Maker Fair was held successfully in April 2012. The establishment of the makerspaces in three major cities and the hosting of the large events marked the beginning of the Chinese maker enlightenment movement. 
At that time, Chinese makers were still small newly formed group of young people who had their hobbies and interests as a core similarity, who had a willingness to share, and who had an innovative spirit.By then the wave of Silicon Valley's hardware business, especially smart hardware pioneering, had swept through the world. According to incomplete statistics, from the end of 2012 to the end of 2014, there were more than 1,000 smart hardware startup companies in China, of which more than 200 were financed. In Beijing, makerspace community has respectively obtained the hardware business projects with the valuation of more than 10 million, 100 million, and 1 billion, which promoted a makerspae boom all over the country.
As an important service carrier for the early-stage business, makerspaces provided entrepreneurs with low-cost working space, network space, social space and resources sharing space. Makerspaces, as well as business incubators, accelerators, industrial parks have formed a business incubation chain. According to statistics by the National Academy of Innovation Strategy,by the end of 2015, there were more than 2,300 varioustypes of makerspaces and more than 2,500 business incubators in China. The number of under-incubation enterprises hit 80,000 and more than 60,000 completed incubation.
2.  Main Features
First, Most makers are young and college students are more active makers
The majority of makers are young people, and of those, college students are especially active. In 2014 , the number of new registered 16 to 30-year-old entrepreneurs reached to 3.01 million, up 15% from a year earlier. This number included 478000 student entrepreneurs, up 33.3% from a year earlier. College student entrepreneurs accounted for 15.9% of the young entrepreneurs group, 2.2% higher than in 2013.
 
Table 1 Changes of the number of college entrepreneurs in 2013 and 2014

Source: China Mass Entrepreneurship and InnovationDevelopment Report 2015
 
Second. Entrepreneurship for individual dreams
A survey of Beijing's makerspaces shows that realizingindividual dream and pursuing personal interests accounted for the majority of entrepreneurs. In related surveys from the China Association for Science and Technology, McCarthy and Zhaopin indicate that in recent year, entrepreneurial enthusiasm of college students has run high. "The pursuit of ideals" is the motivation for startup; "employment" is also one of the factors, but it is not the most important one.A China Association for Science and Technology survey shows that the primary motivation for college students in a startup is "to achieve personal ideals" (71.4%). According to the survey by McCarthy, entrepreneurial ideals are the most important motivations for college graduates to start their own businesses (48%). Only 7% college graduate are self-employed because of not finding conventional employment.  
Third. Vigorous development and various types
Makerspace is booming in number and variety, which have been concentrated around Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu, and each has its own special characteristics. In general, the typical makerspace operations and service modes can be divided into six categories (see table 2). Among them, the open office exchange accounted for about 15.5% of the total recorded makerspaces; venture capital services for 34%; entrepreneurial education and training for 10.3%; customer service for 26.8%, large enterprises open innovation platform for 5.2% and the rest for 8.2%.
Table 2 Classification features of existing makerspaces in China

Source:  “China Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Development Report 2015”
 "China Makerspace Blue Paper" 
Figure 3 Distribution of diverse makerspace
Source:  “China Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Development Report 2015”
Fourth,Market-oriented operation model
For the operation model, market-oriented institutions are the main force of makerspace development. A sampling survey of 97 makerspaces shows the following proportion; private enterprises accounting for 71.1%, state-owned enterprises 14.4%, institutions (8.3%), social organizations (1%), private non-enterprise units 5.2% (see chart4).Generally there are several ways for the makerspaces to gain income, including membership fees and sponsorship, fees from a series of training courses, commission on sales, earnings for activities and workshops and bonuses for participation in incubation projects.
 
Figure 4 Results of the sampling survey of makerspace 
Source:  “China Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Development Report 2015”
 
Fifth, Formation of a clustered maker culture 
      A maker culture is accompanied by a maker movement, which includes the hacker culture of sharing and attacking technical problems and DIY culture of turning ideas into reality and emphasizing critical design, as well as creative cross-sector cooperation [10]. 
      At present, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen have become gathering places of makers. These three cities as the center of the maker-culture community have their own characteristics; Beijing maker culture by the impact of Zhongguancun tends to scientific and technological innovation and incubation; Shanghai focuses more on the interests and hobbies of making and sharing as well as international communication; and Shenzhen because of its perfect electronic industry chain in Huaqiang North, has been regarded as a new maker cultural center and products manufacturing base.
 
Sixth, Returnees promoting internationalization of maker movement
Talented individuals who return after studying abroad have become the main factor in promoting the internationalization of the maker movement. The government has issued favorable policies to support overseas returnees and has implemented plans such as “The Thousand Talents Plan” to attract talent from abroad. More and more overseas students have come back to their homeland to begin startups. Local governments have supported this initiative with a host of programs as well. For example, in 2011 Shenzhen carried out its ambitious "peacock campaign" to attract tech talent or "peacock" teams, most of which have now grown into notable high-tech enterprises such as DJI, Kuang Chi, Royole and BGI.
By the end of 2014, there are more than 300 PioneerParks for overseas returnees across the country and about 22,000 enterprises have settled in the parks where about 63, 000 returnees are working or have set up their enterprises. According to the sampling survey of China Association for Science and Technology, in 2014 more than 15% of overseas returnees established their own startups. Overall, the increasing number of such Pioneer Parks, enterprises and returnees all indicate a trend of quick, steady, development.  (See table 3 )
 
Table 3 The development of overseas student entrepreneurship

Source: 
“China Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Development Report 2015”
Seventh, Supporting startup enterprises and driving employment 
New mechanisms such as crowd innovation, crowd support, crowdsourcing, and crowdfunding, have assisted startup enterprises, small micro-enterprise development, and have utilized available labor and driven employment significantly. According to a sampling survey, the industries with great innovational energy tend to demand an increasing supply of labor.  Compared with 2013, the labor demands increased in the following sectors; transportation, warehousing and postal service (up 36.3%); financial industry (up 17.5%); information transmission, computer services and software industry (up 5.5%); community service and other service industries （up 2.7%）; and leasing and business services（up 1.1%）At the same time in other sectors the labor demands decreased, such as in the construction industry（down 23.8%）; agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries（down 16.6%）; wholesale and retail trade（down 9.8%）; manufacturing industry（down 7%）; accommodation and catering services（down 3.6%）.
 
3.    Development Trend  
The fields and professions that China makerspace involved were from 12 leading industries; household electrical appliances, consumer electronics, fashion, advertising, film and television, sports, education, health, transportation, retail, construction, and agriculture. The maker movement is entering an era of linkages where traditional industries connect to the general public through the Internet; it presents the following trends:
First. Lower threshold, more popular
Using open source technology to quickly implement new ideas, the access threshold for the makers becomes lower and lower and the intelligent hardware creation has stimulated mass do-it-yourself efforts. A reformed business registration system and graduation certificate plus business license policy reduced the barriers for startups and opened a “green channel” for grass-roots entrepreneurship, which greatly stimulated the upsurge of mass entrepreneurship and innovation. Innovation and entrepreneurship groups gradually have grown from small beginnings to mass participation. Four new entrepreneurial groups in Zhongguancun Beijing are typical, including both very young and college-educated entrepreneurs; technical personnel entrepreneurs; overseas returnee entrepreneurs; big business executives and serial entrepreneurs. Also notable are the new four entrepreneurial circles in Hangzhou Zhejiang province; Zhejiang University entrepreneurs; Alibaba entrepreneurs; Zheshang entrepreneurs and returnees entrepreneurs.
Second. Rapid development, focus on branding 
The survey results of established makerspaces indicate that there is a great similarity and convergence from the name of space and development positioning to the operation management and the marketing strategy.
Third. Horizontal cooperation integrates the production, learning and research
Open and sharing resources of science and technology, R & D expenditures plus deductionand other policies require scientific and technological achievements to drive a wide range of traditional industries to implement upgrades and to stimulate the creation of more market-oriented needs and demands to promote supply side structural reform. Effective industry chains require mutual cooperation among scientific research institutions or colleges, enterprise and markets, investors, and production lines; makerspaces can provide a platform for sharing cooperation between industry and laboratories and create connection for the industry chain that is unable to achieve integration on its own. 
Fourth. Open innovation and the trend toward internationalization
Since maker entered into China, the maker movement has been closely connected with international communication and cooperation. More and more Chinese makers are looking for crowdfunding in Kickstarterand IndieGoGo, while, attracting outstanding international makers to settle down in the makerspaces in China and collecting the multi-directional information of innovative technical supply and demand, at home and abroad as a dock for enterprises.
Cooperation with the world's leading universities to create innovative communities and business incubators and facilitate investment in innovative projects. It can help the commercialization and industrialization of research results and thus contribute innovative development of China and the world. 
Various maker culture activities such as the US-China Young Maker Competition and International Maker Week have established a platform for international communication and cooperation for makers all over the world.
III. The maker movement of the United States 
1. Emergence and Development
Europe and the United States are the two major origins of the concept of makers. The history of the American maker can be traced back to the Tech Model Railroad Club, founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the 1950s, which is still in operation.[11] Over the past couple of decades, the makerspaces have developed quickly in the U.S. and have grown from the social edge of Geekdom to integrating with mainstream values.
In 2001 the Center for Bits and Atoms was established at MIT and in 2005, the center launched the first experimental workshop, Fab Lab. Its aim is to provide a manufacturing platform for the makers to implement their innovative ideas and inventive technologies and to stimulate others with the innovative, entrepreneurial spirit [12]. This model quickly spread in the United States. Since 2006 a number of makerspaces have emerged, such as Noisebridge on the west coast and NYC Resistor on the east coast, [1,13]. According to incomplete statistics, currently there are more than 500 makerspaces open or planning to open in the United States. 
2. Main Features
First, the American maker movement is a bottom-up and spontaneous phenomenon with origins in American DIY culture, which has continued to develop for more 70 years and is still thriving and energetic; its power comes from the American public and society for its steady pursuit of creativity and innovation.    
Second, the American maker movement contains a wealth of innovative culture. The spirit of the maker includes the creating, sharing, giving, learning, and supporting. Makers especially enjoy using tools, participating and change. A maker movement promotes a strong appetite for knowledge, and a spirit of craftsmanship, collaborative problem solving and effectiveness.
Third, there are both young students and adults in maker group, who are weighted toward males with a higher level of education. According to statistics from open source community in the United States eight in ten makers are male with a median age is 44 years old; 97% of them have a college education , and more than a quarter have a graduate degree. In terms of motivation for participation, young people want access to technology learning and education, which is closely related to a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) strategy, while adults are more likely to acquire skills and start up their own business [14].
Fourth, the operating mode of the maker space is mainly composed of 3 types, community, platform and commercial. The local community mode according to the "types of work" divides into electronic, woodworking, robots, 3D printing and other different areas, renting office space and providing leased devices and equipment, such as practiced in Artisan’s Asylum [15]. The platform mode relies on the combination of communication technology and digital manufacturing, fully sharing the world's network resources. On this basis, according to the local demand and conditions makers carry out multi-dimensional and all-round project cooperation, such as found at Fab Lab. The commercial mod representative is the Techshop-style open hardware factory, which provides traditional cutting, casting and welding equipment, as well as advanced production tools such as 3D printers and laser cutting machines [16].  
Fifth, The operating mechanism of the makerspaces is mostly membership. Members are entitled to use a shared working location and a variety of facilities and are qualified to attend workshops, product launches and other social activities. Membership is only available to adults over 18 years old and unlimited membership fees are typically around $150 to $200 a month, such as at Artisan's Asylum and TechShop. Non-profit makerspaces are funded mainly by social donations and have volunteers to maintain operations. For example, Noisebridge, its monthly operating costs is over $5000, which is advocating open, free, mutual help.
3. Development Trend 
The maker movement in the United States has shown five developing trends:
First, the participation of large enterprises has been enhanced. For example, Google, Microsoft and other giants are implementing and strengthening plans to improve contact with makers and to create more makerspaces and make them more available to the public. 
Second, in an apparent trend of the services platform, a number of makerspace are taking advantage of cloud software and 3D printing tools to provide makers with free upgrade software services, such as seen at Trimble Navigation.
Third, MakerCity has emerged. Intel Corporation has selected six maker cities, including Santa Clara, Folsom, Portland, Chandler, Austin and Albuquerque and the surrounding Regions, and through the local partnerships and the related programs has promoted education as well as small-scale product design, developing and manufacturing.
Fourth, the layout of the manufacturing sector is changing, becoming more flexible and more intelligent. The maker movement has avoided the problems caused by mass industrial production. It is more responsive to the consumers' individual and flexible demands, and is the embodiment of intelligent manufacturing.
Fifth, it has improved the qualityof STEM in the workforce. The maker movement can stimulate the students' imagination and improve their creativity, and collaborative problem-solving ability. Moreover, it can improve the quality of students' STEM, which is an effective means to influence their future career choices. 
 
IV. PromoteSino - US cooperationto develop sharing entrepreneurial model 
1. Model of Sharing entrepreneurship   
The maker movement is widely developed in Europe, the United States, Asia and other regions . More and more entrepreneurs have gathered in makerspaces to share their ideas of computer, mechanical or digital art and to communicate and collaborate face to face [17]. These developments not only changed the traditional way that people get tools, information, knowledge and skills but they also promoted the birth and development of a new entrepreneurial model,  "sharing entrepreneurship "  Compared with the traditional business model, its characteristics can be summarized as follows:From the creation of the entrepreneurial ideas to its maturity, even in the whole process of entrepreneurship, the gathering of resources have been achieved under the mechanism of openness and sharing. The most notable feature of "sharing entrepreneurship” is crowd innovation, crowd support, crowdsourcing, and crowdfunding.
2. Mutual integration of Sino-US innovation and entrepreneurship
The Chinese and American makers are pursuing the sharing model of entrepreneurship, and the crowd funding and crowd innovation of the makers are fully open to the world; the global innovative and entrepreneurial resources are closely integrated. In 2015, for example, of the top 20 venture capital institutions in China, almost half were Chinese institutions. (See table 4). With promotion of the mass entrepreneurship and innovation initiative and supporting programs, Chinese innovation and entrepreneurship movements have integrated more directly and rapidly with global movement, especially American innovation and entrepreneurship, which has features of a new entrepreneurial boom. 
 
Table 4   Top 20 venture capital institutions in China 2015
 

Source: Zer02IPO Research
 
Chinese enterprises still consider the United States a favorable market for the equity investment IPO exit. (See figure 6). There are countless examples of Chinese makers' successful financing in the United States 
 
Figure 6   Analysis of the trend of IPO exit in equity investment market in 2016
 
3.The integrated development of Sino US maker movement 
The maker movements in China and America are moving into an intensive phase, and present a trend of integrated development, accelerating the formation of a global innovation network, forming a more optimized innovation ecology and driving economic recovery and growth. Currently, companies such as Intel, Google and Microsoft have participated, in term of investment, in the development of startups in China's Internet, smart wearable technology, IT and other fields. A survey of makers in Beijing, Shenzhen and other regions found that in China's makerspaces, there is both seed capital and venture capital from the United States., Most people in the management team have a background of studying abroad and connections resources to help startups.
 
Table 5 The investment situation of Part of the American enterprises in China
 

Source: Zer02IPO Research
 
4. Complementary advantages for makerspaces 
Research has found that most of Chinese makers are willing to connect with overseas makers, hoping to gain resources through cooperation, expand their horizons and seeking new markets. It is American makers that they most want to cooperate with. Moreover, they hope to get the venture capital and entrepreneurial mentor support from the United States. According to a preliminary survey, China’s makers believe that the makerspaces of the two countries have a strong complementarily in the terms of capital return rate, public good and openness.
The Chinese makers agree that what is the most worth learning and adopting from American makers is the concept and method of public good and openness for operating makerspace. They would like American makersspace introduce some excellent projects and maker teams from China and carry out various exchange activities to improve return on invested capital( ROIC ) at the same time. In their investigation some makers also point out that in the process of cooperation there was still some regulation of technology transfer and restrictions on the personnel movement (such as in obtaining visa).  
 
Figure 7 China and American maker space comparison chart
 
V. Suggestions for deepening Sino US maker cooperation
A comparative study of Chinese and American maker movement found that the Chinese maker movement has obvious top-down and policy driven feature, while the US   maker movement is more personal, spontaneous and market-leading behavior. In the context of a global flow of production factors, such as talent, technology, capital and commodities, the maker movement of the two countries can be integrated for their mutual benefit and mutual complementarities. With the promotion of new sharing/collaborative entrepreneurial model and a mass entrepreneurship and innovation policy, deepening Sino US maker cooperation can be made more conducive to the realization of a global innovation network and the continuous optimization of innovative ecology. Chinese and U.S. makers can deepen their beneficial cooperation in the following three aspects.
 
First, jointly promote the development of sharing entrepreneurship. By adhering to the principles of openness and innovation, the related agencies and departments can overcome the obstacles that restrict the cooperation of entrepreneurs from both sides, especially in terms of the entrepreneurial facilitation, increasing policy openness and supporting efforts. They also should carry out in-deep studies of the current technology trade rules, market admittance threshold, open data, the visa policy and so on and propose feasible solutions. 
 
Second, advocate to promote the "Internet plus " innovative ecological integration development. The Internet is not only a tool for makers to create and innovate at present but it is also a way to play a greater role in the future. Making good use of multi-channel, cross-regional functions of Internet so that makers can be more efficient access to technical information and funding channels. Further development of the internationalization of crowd innovation, crowd support, crowdsourcing, and crowdfunding model makes intelligence, capital and products both interconnection and interworking in the real world, but also quickly docking in the virtual space, forming an ecological innovation environment favorable for a maker development.
 
Third, the joint implementation of the "Sino-US Maker Action Plan", aims through the purchase of services by Chinese and US governments, to encourage research institutes, universities, high-tech zones, business incubators and industry to establish various joint-makerspaces , providing the makers of the tow countries with shared space , convenience services and startup facilities. The plan can also include extensive maker cultural exchange activities in the areas of innovation entrepreneurship, education, and scientific research. Such activities should further promote “The Sino-US Maker Competition”, Sino-US maker forums and other activities to encourage  dialogue ，communication and inspiration among makers of China and American to promote innovation entrepreneurship. 
 
Acknowledgments: Shi Lei, Zhang Mingyan and Zhang Tianhui three researchers in the writing of this article, provided much helpful information and assistance. Unfortunately they can not be included as authors here due to a limit in the number of authors allowed for this journal article. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to them.