Chinese apps dominated Android and iOS downloads in US in 2025 — Here's how TikTok, CapCut, Temu, Shein fared

Despite pressure and anti-China rhetoric from United State President Donald Trump and his administration, Chinese apps continued to dominate the Android and iOS download list in the United States last year, according to a CNBC report.

Notably, this comes even as TikTok parent ByteDance on 23 January finalised a deal to transfer control of its American unit in compliance with a deal signed with the Trump administration.

The company formed the long-awaited joint venture, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, to transfer parts of TikTok US to new owners, including US software giant Oracle Corp., private equity firm Silver Lake Management LLC, and Abu Dhabi-based investment company MGX.

The sale once complete, will culminate years of back-and-forth that threatened to shut down popular video sharing app TikTok, which is used by around 200 million Americans.

Amid this background, here's a look at how Chinese apps, including ByteDance's TikTok and CapCut fared in the US, in terms of annual downloads on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in 2025.

2025 app downloads: Here's how Chinese apps fared in the US

As per the CNBC report, citing data from Sensor Tower, despite being nearly banned, TikTok stayed the second-most-downloaded app on both the App Store and the Play Store in the US in 2025. Notably, ByteDance owned video editing app CapCut ranked fourth, up three places from 2024, it added.

Sam Altman-led OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT took the top spot in 2025 amid a wave of AI expansion and sector boom, Sensor Tower data showed, as per the report.

Major e-commerce apps such Shein and Temu also saw good placements. While Shein was not in the top 10, it was the most downloaded apparel app in the US, while Temu made it to the list at seventh place. Notably, Temu tumbled from first spot in 2024 to seventh in 2025, but the top 10 placement came despite tariffs imposed by Donald Trump, the report added.

Both Shein and Temu were hard hit when Donald Trump discontinued the “de minimis” rule, which allowed duty-free entry for packages under $800 on 2 May, and then went on to impose heavy tariffs on China through the year.

Why do Chinese apps continue to see success in US?

Chinese apps climb the download charts as US customers favour their “addictive algorithms, affordability, and convenience”, CNBC reported, citing Sensor Tower.

“2025 showed that these China-originated apps aren’t just policy arbitrageurs but are adaptive ecosystems with governance capabilities on both the demand and supply sides… (Policy) shocks in 2025 didn’t really make demand disappear. Rather, they proved that these platforms could adapt their logistics, merchant mix, and incentive design faster than consumer habits shift,” Liang Chen, a Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship at Singapore Management University, told CNBC.

Scott Miller, CEO of e-commerce consulting firm pdPlus told the publication that popularity of Chinese algorithm-based app reflected change in consumer demands. “Their growth shows that American consumers now discover products through highly engaging, viral, and personalized content, making demand creation a function of entertainment and constant digital presence rather than traditional top-down branding,” he said.

Yao Jin, an associate professor of supply chain management at Miami University put it simply for CNBC, “American consumers overall don’t really care an app’s association with any specific country as long as they can find something they want at an affordable price. (That) is exactly the competitive advantage of most China-originated apps.”