Technologies

What Is DHgate? App Surges in Popularity, but Might Not Be Helpful Against Tariffs

American consumers have become enamored with the Chinese shopping app DHgate, but hopes that it might be a way around President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda don’t hold up to scrutiny.

President Donald Trump’s contentious barrage of tariffs has people asking a lot of questions: What will they actually do to prices? Should I make that big purchase now? However, one question the White House probably didn’t see coming is consumers wondering how they can do more shopping from China. And the answer to that might be DHgate.

On April 16, the Chinese shopping service DHgate boasted the second-most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store, behind only OpenAI’s ChatGPT. According to a report from Yahoo Finance, the previous week, it was 352nd on the same list, indicating a stratospheric rise in popularity largely attributed to popular TikTok creators advocating for the e-commerce platform as a way to buy directly from China. As of April 25, it was still the 12th most popular shopping app on the App Store.

So what is DHgate precisely? It’s an online shopping platform based in China that has been around since 2004. Similar in function and appearance to other popular sites like Shein and Temu, DHgate allows consumers to make purchases directly from manufacturers in China. It has gained popularity online for its selection of dupes, which are copies of popular brand-name products sold at much lower prices.

According to Yahoo Finance, numerous Chinese influencers have advocated for international consumers to buy these sorts of products on platforms like DHgate. They argue that many high-end brands buy cheaply made goods from Chinese factories and then sell them with sizable mark-ups.

DHgate did not respond to CNET’s request for comment. The company did, however, give a statement to Yahoo in which it said it is «grateful yet remain(s) humble about this phenomenal surge in traffic.»

Will DHgate help you get around tariffs?

While tariffs are credited with helping juice DHgate’s popularity, the unfortunate reality is that it — and apps like it — will not help you get around Trump’s new tariffs.

China has long been a fixation of Trump’s global trade agenda. The country was the primary target of tariffs and policies during his first term and has remained the biggest target on his second-term agenda, featuring a 10% universal tax on imports from all nations and higher rates for countries with trade imbalances with the US. However, the latter has largely been delayed until July. For now, China’s rates remain in effect, with a base 20% tariff and an additional 125% «reciprocal» tariff bringing the total tax to 145%, a number that has steadily been increasing as the countries retaliate back-and-forth.

Before the second Trump administration, you might have been able to use sites like DHgate to get cheap goods directly from China and avoid import taxes due to a rule known as the «de minimis exception,» which stated that purchases under $800 would not be subject to tariffs or other duties. This rule, however, was done away with via an executive order from Trump and is set to expire next month. So, our advice? If DHgate’s offerings sound appealing to you, get in while the getting’s good.

Speaking with CNET via email, Patti Brennan, CEO of Key Financial, predicted that apps like DHgate wouldn’t be a permanent solution even if they did offer a way around tariffs, as the Trump administration would get wind of them eventually and could «close this loophole one way or the other.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 15, #1008

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 15, No. 1,008

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is kind of tough, but the yellow category has some fun options in it. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Mine, all mine!

Green group hint: A part you might use to build something.

Blue group hint: Blended words.

Purple group hint: Not a cow, but close.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Greedily control.

Green group: Toothed wheels.

Blue group: Portmanteaux.

Purple group: Bull ____.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is greedily control. The four answers are bogart, corner, hog and monopolize.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is toothed wheels. The four answers are cog, gear, pinion and sprocket.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is portmanteaux. The four answers are blog, motel, smog and spork.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is bull ____. The four answers are dog, doze, frog and horn.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 15, #742

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 15, No. 742.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is fun and timely, relating to a certain big ceremony held this weekend. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Best of all

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: The envelope, please.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

RATE, RATED, DATE, DOTE, DATED, DOTED, GATE, GATES, TROD, TRODS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: