(Yicai) April 16 -- Chinese e-commerce platforms DHgate, Taobao, and Shein have surged in popularity among US consumers, becoming the three most-downloaded free shopping apps on Apple's App Store in the United States amid rising China-US trade tensions.

DHgate, which has only recently gained traction among US shoppers, topped the chart yesterday, followed by Alibaba Group Holding's Taobao in second place and budget fashion retailer Shein in third position.

DHgate, a cross-border procurement platform for small and mid-sized businesses, used to rank around 300th. But downloads of its app have soared since April 12, pushing it as high as second place among all categories yesterday, just behind OpenAI's ChatGPT, according to data from Appfigures, a mobile app store reporting platform.

DHgate’s rise in popularity is largely driven by videos posted by Chinese merchants on TikTok. In these videos, sellers explain to American consumers that some luxury goods from European brands are actually made in China, and they include links to DHgate’s website.

The videos have been receiving broad attention after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on “reciprocal tariffs” on April 2, announcing a baseline 10 percent levy on trading partners and additional tariffs for some effective April 5. Chinese imports initially faced an additional 34 percent border tax, which was then ratcheted up to 145 percent on April 11.

Established in 2004, Beijing-based DHgate has 77 million registered buyers, covering 225 countries and regions with more than 33 million goods available, according to its website.

On April 11, DHgate issued a Tariff Escort Plan to merchants on its platform, saying that the platform will provide "solid" traffic, rights, and logistics support to those that are not raising prices in response to US tariff policy.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev