China’s Hottest App Is a Daily Test of Whether You’re Still Alive
An indie app with only one function at this time all the rage in China. It's hot she ma (死了吗), which literally translates to “Are you still dead.” The app asks users to tap a button once each day, and if they don't for two consecutive days, it automatically sends an email to a designated emergency contact, urging them to check on the user in person.
Guo, one of the three Gen-Z developers behind Are You Dead Yet, says he's been building social and entertainment apps for a few years. But he wanted to turn to something more fundamental. “When I looked at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, I saw that security needs are deeper and apply to a much wider group of people. That felt like a good direction,” Guo told WIRED in an exclusive interview. (He asked to be identified only by his last name, for privacy reasons.)
The practical functionality of the app and the dark humor that the name evokes have struck a chord with young people in China, who have flocked to download it over the past week. At the time of publication, Are You Dead Yet was the number one paid app in the Chinese version of Apple's App Store. It's also climbing the rankings in foreign app store charts, even though Guo says he hasn't spent a cent on paid advertising. “We don't have that kind of money,” he says.
Guo tells WIRED that the team has been contacted by more than 60 investors since Are You Dead Yet blew up on social media, and they're in active conversations about fundraising. He claims some investors have offered millions of Chinese yuan – hundreds of thousands of US dollars – for a stake in its parent company, Moonscape Technologies, which has only released a handful of apps. The team expects to announce the results of the fundraising interviews in a few weeks. “We knew there would be some traction, but the scale of this completely exceeded our expectations,” says Guo.
Guo and his colleagues initially charged users a one-time payment of 1 RMB (14 cents) to use the app; amid the increased attention this week, they raised the price to 8 RMB ($1.15), still a minimal amount considering there is no subscription required. While Guo declined to reveal how much money the app has made or how many active users it has, he says the money they've earned so far will go toward developing the platform for the long term.
Are You Dead Yet is particularly popular among people who live alone. The average size of a Chinese family has shrunk dramatically in recent decades. According to a national census of 2020, 25.4 percent of households consisted of only one person, compared to 14.5 percent a decade earlier. While older people are most likely to live alone, there is a growing cohort of younger people living a solo lifestyle, and Chinese companies are increasingly catering to this demographic by offering digital or physical companionship services.
On Tuesday, the developers announced on Chinese social media that Are You Dead Yet would officially change its name to Demumu to better serve the global market. That name, which was previously also used for the overseas version of the app, was inspired by another Chinese business success. Guo says Demumu is a combination of the word “death” and the name pattern of Labubu, the Chinese plushie monster that went viral worldwide last year.
Fans of the app are not satisfied. Even before the announcement, they had asked the developers not to change the obtuse name, which was half the appeal. On Weibo, a Chinese social platform, the most liked comment under the name change announcement read: “Baby, your previous name was the reason you went viral.”
