Powered by TikTok Videos, China's Answer to Tariffs is Cutting the Middleman
This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - Chicken Jockey. Check out the full article for more insights.
Earlier this week, two shopping apps I haven't seen before jumped to the top of the charts and have kept their top spots.
DHgate and Taobao, two Chinese shopping apps, went on TikTok over the weekend to tell the world that the expensive branded goods most think come from Europe are really made in China, and that anyone can buy the unbranded (maybe knockoff) versions right from them and save a lot of money in the process.
And those videos went viral!
We estimate that between Sunday and Tuesday, Taobao saw 756K new downloads and DHgate saw a whopping 1M new downloads from the App Store and Google Play globally.
For Taobao, that's an increase of roughly 150% as it was already averaging around 100K downloads per day, according to our App Intelligence. For DHgate, the one that started it all, things are a bit different.
DHgate's downloads rose a ridiculous 1,583% since the video went viral, catapulting it from around 20K downloads per day to more than 540K downloads on Tuesday. That's the most downloads DHgate saw in a single day ever.
It's worth noting that in both cases, downloads from the App Store and Google were fairly balanced.
TikTok's ability to send apps to the top of the charts is still strong!
What I find interesting is that Taobao isn't even in English, making it less likely to actually be used by the hundreds of thousands who downloaded it this week. This feels a lot like the short-lived popularity of Rednote back in January, when TikTok was banned.
I'm sure there's a political angle to all of this, which isn't for this newsletter but instead is a good reminder to be ready when the opportunity for your app comes along.
App Intelligence for Everyone!
The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.
Are you a Journalist? You can get access to our app and market intelligence for free through the Appfigures for Journalists program. Contact us for more details.
All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.
