Published on
People in Denmark are turning to mobile apps to help them boycott American products in a push back against US President Donald Trump’s recent comments about acquiring Greenland, a Danish territory.
Danish shoppers have been using two apps in particular to help identify American-made goods and suggest local alternatives—sending these apps soaring to the top of Denmark’s app charts.
One of the apps, called UdenUSA or NonUSA in English, is climbing the charts and is currently the most downloaded app in the country, just above ChatGPT, on the App Store.
The app allows users to scan goods to see their country of origin. It also helps find alternatives from countries other than the United States and adds them to a shopping cart.
The developers say the app was not intended to encourage a boycott but to give consumers more clarity about their purchases.
Another popular app is Made O’Meter, which is currently ranked fifth on the App Store in the Nordic country.
“It’s up to consumers what they want to do,” Jonas Pipper, one of the UdenUSA developers, told Denmark’s public broadcaster DR Nyheder.
Experts say supermarket boycotts are likely to have a limited impact because relatively few American-made products are sold in Danish stores.
Only about 1 percent of Danish food consumption comes directly from the United States, according to Louise Aggerstrøm Hansen, a private economist at Danske Bank.
This also makes it difficult to assess the real effect of such a boycott.
A way to vent anger
However, researchers say the apps may still give consumers a sense of agency.
“A lot of people watch the news and see something they don’t like and get angry about it. In this case, it’s about ourselves and Greenland,” Pelle Guldborg Hansen, a behavioural researcher at Roskilde University, told local media.
“And then you just want to do something with your anger. No matter how small it is,” he added.
Since the beginning of January, Trump has repeated earlier suggestions that the US should acquire Greenland. Officials from Greenland, Denmark and the US have since held meetings, describing their positions as “agreeing to disagree”.
Last week, thousands of people took to the streets in Greenland and Denmark in protests opposing any US takeover of the Arctic island.