A new bleak-sounding app has taken China by storm.
Named Are You Dead? the concept is simple. You need to check in with it every two days – clicking a large button – to confirm that you are alive. If not, it will get in touch with your appointed emergency contact and inform them that you may be in trouble.
It was launched in May last year to not much fanfare but attention around it has exploded in recent weeks with many young people, who live alone in Chinese cities, downloading it in droves.
This has propelled it to become the most downloaded paid app in the country.
According to research institutions, there may be up to 200 million one-person households in China by 2030, Chinese state media outlet Global Times reports.
And it’s those people that the app – which describes itself as a “safety company companion… whether you’re a solo office worker, a student living away from home, or anyone choosing a solitary lifestyle” – is trying to target.
“People who live alone at any stage of their life need something like this, as do introverts, those with depression, the unemployed and others in vulnerable situations,” said one user on Chinese social media.
“There is a fear that people living alone might die unnoticed, with no one to call for help. I sometimes wonder, if I died alone, who would collect my body?” said another.
Wilson Hou, 38, who lives around 100km (62 miles) from his family, says that is exactly why he downloaded the app.
He works in the capital Beijing. He returns home to his wife and child twice a week, but says he has to be away from them at the moment to work on a project and he mostly sleeps on site.
“I worry that if something happened to me, I could die alone in the place I rent and no-one would know,” he said. “That’s why I downloaded the app and I set my mum as my emergency contact.”
He also added that he downloaded the app quickly after its release, fearing it would be banned because of the negative connotations around it.
Some have been quick to bash the app’s less than cheery name – saying that signing up for it might bring ill fortune.
Others have called for it to be changed to something with a more positive spin, like “Are you ok?” or “How are you?”.
And though the success of this app must be, in part, because of its catchy-sounding name, the company behind the app, Moonscape Technologies, has said it is taking on board the criticism of the current title and weighing up a potential name change.
The app, which is listed internationally under the name Demumu, ranks in the top two in the US, Singapore and Hong Kong, and top four in Australia and Spain for paid utility apps – possibly driven by Chinese users living overseas.
The current name is a word play on a successful food delivery app called “Are you Hungry?”. In Chinese, “Si-le-ma” sounds like the name of the food app “E-le-ma”.
First launched as a free app, the app has now made its way into the paid category – albeit at the low price of 8 yuan ($1.15; £0.85).
Little is known about the founders of Are You Dead?, but they say they are three people who were born after 1995 who built the app from Zhengzhou in Henan with a small team.
It has certainly grown in value now. One of these men, who goes by the name Mr Guo, told Chinese media that they intended to raise money by selling 10% of the company for a million yuan. That is a lot more than the 1,000 yuan ($140) they say it cost to build the app.
And they’re also looking to grow their target audience – saying they are exploring the idea of a new product specifically designed for the elderly in a country where over one-fifth of its population is over the age of 60.
In an indication that it was seriously looking at this option, it posted over the weekend, “we would like to call on more people to pay attention to the elderly who are living at home, to give them more care and understanding. They have dreams, strive to live, and deserve to be seen, respected and protected.”
