A morbid-sounding app has taken China by storm in recent weeks, capitalizing on widespread loneliness and youth frustration in the world’s second most populous country.
The app, named “Are You Dead,” is aimed at people who live alone and has a simple premise: users need to check in to the app every day. The app will automatically notify the user’s emergency contacts if they are unreachable for several days.
The app has spread rapidly in recent weeks and topped Apple’s paid App Store rankings on Saturday, according to the state-run tabloid Global Times. The app was subsequently rebranded and a subscription fee was introduced due to international media coverage and a sudden increase in downloads.
The spread speaks to a larger trend across China, a country of 1.4 billion people: a growing number of people living alone, often feeling lonely or struggling with their well-being.
According to the Global Times, citing a real estate research agency, the number of single-person households in Japan could reach 200 million by 2030.
There are several reasons for this. The country’s population is aging rapidly, and the number of elderly people living alone is increasing. Over the past decade, hundreds of millions of young people have migrated to cities far from their hometowns in search of work, leaving behind empty villages and orphaned elderly parents.
And among young people, marriage and relationships are on the decline overall. The number of new marriages in China in 2024 is the lowest on record since the government began releasing data in 1986. This reflects a parallel and failed attempt by authorities to reverse the decline in birthrates.
Add to that the fact that youth unemployment has hit record highs in recent years, along with widespread feelings of depression, anxiety, and disillusionment, and it’s easy to see why an app with such a grim name resonated with users across the country.
“Alone but not lonely, safety is by your side,” says the app’s description on the App Store, adding that it aims to reach “solo office workers, students living away from home, or anyone who chooses a solitary lifestyle.”
Introducing a young Chinese “rat man” who hides in bed to escape the stress of life
Many social media users welcomed the app, saying it made them feel seen and comforted.
“For the first time, someone is worried about whether I’m dead or alive,” one person wrote on the blogging platform Weibo.
Another user wrote about the app’s price ($1.15): “This 8 yuan app is somehow the last dignity for many young people living alone. The scariest thing is not loneliness. Loneliness is disappearing.”
Stuart Gietel-Basten, a professor of social science and public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said the response shows how the app is “taking advantage of this fragmented feeling of being stuck and isolated in terms of extremely long working hours.”
“Many young people are not able to have the social life they would like.”
But Chinese society needs to use the app’s hype as a starting point to find ways to better support both lonely elderly and young people, he added.
“If apps and technology like this can prevent one person from dying alone or taking their own life, and create small connections, then of course that’s a positive thing,” he says. “But you never want this to replace more meaningful social interaction.”
Others asked for the app’s brand name to be changed to something more encouraging or neutral.
Hu Xijin, a critic and former editor of the Global Times, praised the app for helping lonely elderly residents, but suggested it be renamed “Are You Alive.”
It seems the app has listened too, and after receiving so much attention from users overseas, it announced on Tuesday that it would be adopting the name “Demumu” for its global app. It also announced that it would raise the price of the app from 1 yuan (about 14 cents) to 8 yuan.
However, the new name still includes subtle nods to the previous name. The “de” in “Demumu” comes from the English word “death,” and the “mumu” was added to give it a friendlier feel, developers told a state news agency.
In an earlier post on Weibo, the developers said they were a team of three co-founders born after 1995 and thanked users and media for interviewing them.
“We are honored and deeply grateful to have received such widespread attention,” the team said in a statement, according to the Global Times.
