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Alibaba’s Taobao surges in popularity in US as Trump tariffs boost Chinese shopping apps

Taobao jumped to fifth place from 47th on Apple’s App Store and to third place from 144th among shopping apps on Google Play in a matter of days.

The app climbed to fifth place among free apps on Apple’s App Store in the US on Thursday, up from 47th place on Sunday, according to data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower. On Google Play, it ranked as the third-most popular shopping app in the US on Thursday, compared with 144th place 10 days ago. Globally, the Taobao app has been downloaded 2 million times in the last 30 days, according to Sensor Tower.

Known as Dunhuang in Chinese and dubbed the “Little Yellow App” by shoppers, DHgate climbed to second place in the free app charts on the US App Store on Monday – behind only ChatGPT – after not even ranking among the top 200 days earlier, according to data from Sensor Tower. In one widely circulated TikTok video, which is no longer available, a user suggested that more than 80 per cent of luxury handbags were produced in China before being repackaged and sold overseas..