China’s hottest app is a daily test to see if you’re still alive

Standalone application With only one job currently All the rage in China. It’s called Yes but (死了吗), which literally translates to “Are you dead yet?” The app asks users to click a button once each day, and if they fail to do so for two consecutive days, it automatically sends an email to a designated emergency contact, urging them to verify the user personally.

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 focus on something More fundamental. “When I looked at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I saw that safety needs go deeper and apply to a much broader group of people. This seemed to me to be a good trend,” Joe told WIRED in an exclusive interview. (He asked to be identified by his last name only for privacy reasons.)

The app’s practical functions and the dark humor evoked by its name 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 on third-party app store listings, although Guo says he hasn’t spent a dime on paid advertising. “We don’t have that kind of money,” he explains.

Guo told WIRED that the team has been contacted by more than 60 investors since Are You Dead Yet went viral on social media, and they are in active conversations about fundraising. He claims some investors have already offered millions of Chinese yuan — hundreds of thousands of US dollars — in exchange for a stake in its parent company, Moonscape Technologies, which has released only a handful of apps so far. The team expects to announce the results of the fundraising talks within a few weeks. “We knew there would be some traction, but the scale of it completely exceeded our expectations,” Joe says.

Guo and his colleagues initially charged users a one-time payment of 1 Chinese yuan ($0.14) to use the app; Amid growing interest this week, they raised the price to 8 RMB ($1.15), which is still a small amount considering there is no subscription required. While Guo declined to reveal how much money the app has made and how many active users it has, he says the money they have earned so far will go toward developing the platform in the long term.

“Are You Dead” has been particularly popular among people who live alone? The average Chinese family size has shrunk dramatically over the past few decades. According to the 2020 national census, 25.4% of households consist of only one person, compared to 14.5% a decade ago. While older people remain the most likely to live alone, there is a growing group of young people who live 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 will officially change its name to “Demumu” in order to better serve the global market. This name, which was also used for the overseas version of the app previously, is inspired by another Chinese commercial success. Guo says Demumu is a combination of the word “death” and the naming pattern for Labubu, the Chinese stuffed monster that… It spread worldwide last year.

Fans of the app are not happy. Even before the announcement, they were asking the developers not to change the explicit name, which was half the appeal. On Weibo, a Chinese social platform, the most liked comment under the name change announcement was: “Dear, your previous name was the reason you went viral.”