What Is DHGate and Should You Use It?

President Donald Trump’s tariff rollercoaster has had galore unexpected impacts—including threatening the sex artifact industry and perchance making smartphones dumber. But the astir caller unusual aftershock from his yo-yoing decisions connected whether to instigate tariff hikes against China has been bully quality for a antecedently little-known app called DHgate.

The app has changeable to adjacent the apical of the App Store charts this week, according to Sensor Tower, an expert firm. Its occurrence is (practically) overnight: past week, it couldn’t adjacent ace the 100 astir fashionable apps connected Apple’s rankings.

But what is it, wherefore is it popular—and, possibly astir importantly, should you usage it? DHgate’s media relations squad did not instantly respond to WIRED’s petition to enactment successful this story, but e-commerce experts person shared with america their thoughts.

What Is DHgate and Where Did It Come From?

Since 2004, DHgate has helped link overseas buyers with Chinese manufacturers. The initials successful its sanction is simply a notation to Dunhuang, a metropolis erstwhile famed for its relation successful China’s past Silk Road commercialized route.

“I retrieve I utilized to bargain imported DVDs of Chinese films that you can’t bargain elsewhere,” says Arnold Ma, a Chinese e-commerce adept and laminitis and CEO of Qumin, an UK-based selling bureau specializing successful Chinese assemblage behaviours. “They've ever been much of a B2B business, but earlier Alibaba became popular, for planetary merchants to get banal from China cheaply and successful bulk.”

The institution down it, DHgate Group, was founded by pistillate entrepreneur and erstwhile Microsoft and Cisco worker Wang Shutong, and has since grown into a behemoth: as of precocious 2023, 77 cardinal registered buyers crossed astir each state and portion successful the world, around 10 cardinal of whom person reportedly bought from 2.6 cardinal sellers successful China and elsewhere. However, immoderate of these claims ought to beryllium taken with a pinch of salt. Implausibly, DHgate claims buyers are located successful much “countries and regions” than determination are countries successful the world.

Why Is DHgate Popular Now?

The increasing inclination of Chinese e-commerce manufacturers selling their wares connected apps similar TikTok and its Chinese equivalent, Douyin, successful effect to Donald Trump’s tariffs against China, has raised consciousness of DHgate among the public. “It’s precocious got fashionable acknowledgment to TikTok,” says Ma. “People are starting to wonderment with the tariffs whether they tin bargain items from China directly.”

Those viral videos, made by representatives of factories that assertion to marque products for luxury goods retailers, suggested radical could antagonistic the terms increases coming from tariffs by buying unbadged versions of the aforesaid products nonstop from them connected DHgate astatine a overmuch little cost—though determination are superior questions astir whether the sellers are legitimately suppliers to luxury occidental brands. Search involvement spiked successful the past week arsenic a result, with “China ‘Exposes’ Luxury Brands” present a trending taxable connected TikTok. “They’ve ever wanted to dabble successful B2C,” says Ma.

How Does DHgate Work?

Like astir each different buying app, you download, log connected and hunt for items—but you tin besides entree the marketplace via the company’s website. DHgate categorizes the products it sells connected behalf of manufacturers into antithetic groups, portion you tin besides hunt for circumstantial items utilizing the hunt barroom astatine the apical of the page. A hunt for “laptop” returns more than 73,000 results.

Many of these are unbranded items; countless others are dupes of recognizable ones. Befitting its past arsenic a business-to-business retailer, you tin get discounts for buying successful bulk.

As with immoderate online retail transaction, it’s worthy checking reviews of idiosyncratic items, and ratings for the sellers successful question: DHgate is simply a marketplace, not a supplier itself. “It’s not arsenic bully arsenic it says connected TikTok videos,” says Ma. “There are inactive rather a batch of scammers, and there's a batch of cases wherever radical don’t get the merchandise that they paid for. But erstwhile you bash your research, and you bash spell to the close merchants connected DHgate, you bash genuinely get truly bully prime products that are 80 percent the same, made successful the aforesaid factories for a batch less.”

Is It Safe to Buy from DHgate?

There’s nary proposition that buying items from DHgate is simply a hazard erstwhile it comes to information collection: the level is longstanding and a recognized name, truthful your recognition paper details are apt to beryllium nary little harmless than they are connected immoderate different Chinese e-commerce platform. The app besides has a purchaser extortion program, and holds payments from sellers until buyers admit receipt of their order—making it little apt you’ll beryllium scammed.

Whether the goods you person volition beryllium top-notch prime is different question. Prior to this month, DHgate was champion known arsenic a “prolific destination for decorator knockoffs”, arsenic quality organizations person previously described it. In the past, WIRED has also called DHgate “one of the astir established purveyors of counterfeits from China.” Indeed, if you bash acquisition counterfeit goods connected DHgate, it could mean bought items extremity up seized by customs earlier reaching your home.