A BLEAKLY named app called Are You Dead? has shot to the top of China’s Apple Store, tapping into fears of dying alone in an increasingly isolated society.
The app, asks users to check in by tapping a bright green button every two days to prove they are still alive.
If they fail to do so, the app automatically contacts an emergency contact to warn that the user “may be in trouble”.
The app, known as Sile Me in Chinese and Demumu internationally, quietly launched last year but has exploded in recent weeks, becoming the most downloaded paid app in China at just 8 yuan (£0.85).
The surge is being driven by young people living alone in big cities, with China projected to have up to 200 million one-person households by 2030.
“People who live alone at any stage of their life need something like this,” wrote one user, while another added: “I sometimes wonder, if I died alone, who would collect my body?”
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Wilson Hou, 38, downloaded the app while working away from his family in Beijing, saying: “I worry that if something happened to me, I could die alone in the place I rent and no-one would know.”
He added: “That’s why I downloaded the app and I set my mum as my emergency contact.”
The app’s dark name has sparked backlash, with critics warning it brings bad luck and calling for it to be renamed “Are you ok?” or “Are You Alive?”
The creators, Moonscape Technologies, admit they are considering a name change despite the title’s viral success.
Built for just 1,000 yuan (£106) by three founders born after 1995, the team now plans to sell 10 per cent of the company for 1m yuan (£10,600).
One founder, Mr. Guo noted to Chinese media that the number of downloads shot up to over 100 times the usual amount, sending server costs soaring.
Another founder, Mr Lyu, said the app targets young people living alone, especially women around 25, who face “a strong sense of loneliness,” according to the Financial Times.
China’s loneliness crisis is being fuelled by falling marriage rates, an ageing population and years of strict birth control under the one-child policy.
