BEIJING: Open the app and tap a green button to “check in” once a day. Miss two consecutive check-ins, and the app automatically sends an alert via e-mail to your designated emergency contact on the third day.
That is the concept of Si Le Me – Mandarin for “Are you dead?” – a no-frills app that surged to the top of Apple’s App Store paid app ranking in China on Jan 10 and has since remained there, sparking widespread discussion on Chinese social media.
The app, its creators said, is designed as a safety tool for people who live alone. Listed as Demumu outside of China, the app was launched in June for just one yuan (18 Singapore cents), but the price jumped to eight yuan when it started going viral on Jan 10. It is unclear what triggered its sudden surge in popularity.
News of the wildly popular app trended on Chinese social media platform Weibo, with much online discussion centred on the app’s Chinese name, which some users described as unsettling, provocative or overly literal.
Some said the name clashed with cultural taboos around speaking openly about death and suggested a more auspicious name, such as Huo Zhe Me (“Alive or not?”).
Yet in fast-paced Chinese cities that prize speed, productivity and self-reliance, the app’s sudden popularity seems less about being alone and more about the anxiety of being unseen or unnoticed if something goes wrong.
A closer look at netizens’ comments – beyond complaints about the name and discussions on whether the app is worth eight yuan – reveals unease over the absence of reliable informal safety nets for people living alone.
“The problem is who my emergency contact should be,” one user wrote beneath a Weibo post discussing the app. Another half-jokingly suggested a government helpline instead.
Dr Zhao Litao, a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute, said the concern is neither emotional loneliness nor morbid curiosity. “It’s the everyday insecurity and fear that if something happens to you – say a medical emergency or an accident – no one will know,” said Dr Zhao, who researches China’s social transformation.
The number of one-person households in China has been growing steadily, with more than 125 million recorded in the 2020 national population census.
By 2030, the number is expected to rise to as many as 200 million, according to a report by Beike Research Institute, a Chinese real estate property analysis platform.
In a society where solo living is becoming increasingly common, even a small gesture of acknowledgment can bring comfort.
The appeal of the app may lie in how little it offers. It does not monitor health indicators or provide companionship. It requires only a daily tap and, in return, offers a basic form of acknowledgment.
“From a sociological perspective, being noticed is a minimal form of social recognition, a confirmation that one’s existence registers in the social world,” said Dr Zhao.
“In urban China today, companionship is increasingly optional, but basic visibility still matters.”
The app’s popularity also reflects shifting social norms. As family members live farther apart and neighbourhood ties weaken, many urban residents are reluctant to burden others, particularly in a society where everyone is perceived to be busy or under pressure.
The rise of one-person households in China has brought both greater autonomy and greater structural vulnerability, though not equally for everyone, said Dr Zhao.
For younger, healthier and more economically secure people, living alone can be a choice that offers privacy and independence. But for others, such as older adults, migrants or those with weaker support networks, it can heighten risks when emergencies occur out of sight.
As bare-bones as it may be, the Are You Dead? app sits at the intersection of these trends, filling in as an informal safety net as traditional community support thins and increasingly shifts online.
In an interview with Chinese media outlet Guangzhou Daily on Jan 10, a man identified as Lyv said he co-created the app with two others, all born in the mid-1990s and holding full-time jobs. They developed the app remotely within a month at a cost of just over 1,000 yuan, he said.
He declined to specify the number of app downloads, but said the number of paying users has increased 200-fold and continues to rise.
Addressing criticism of the controversial name, Lyv was quoted as saying: “Death is something that everyone must face. Perhaps it is only when people confront the idea of their own death that they can better deal with the present.”
In a Jan 11 statement, the creators said they were looking into adding SMS notifications on top of e-mail alerts – a channel that many Chinese users do not check frequently – and a message function.
Some users have questioned whether the current alert mechanism is fast enough to function as an early-warning tool. One netizen remarked that by the time an e-mail is sent on the third day, it is more likely to serve as a “death notification” than an emergency alert.
A separate netizen described the app as “a saviour” for those living alone, and said he downloaded it as soon as he heard about it. Another wrote that it inspired him to create an app called “Have You Eaten Yet?”, so that people could “feel warm greetings from others in their busy lives”.
Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the state-run Global Times, on Jan 10 praised the app as potentially helpful for seniors who live alone. Like many others, he suggested that the app be renamed Huo Zhe Me, to give some psychological comfort to elderly users, cautioning that the concept might otherwise be copied by others.
True enough, the idea was quickly replicated. Within 24 hours of the app going viral, at least one copycat app called Huo Le Me, or “Are You Alive?”, appeared on the Apple App Store, offering similar functions free of charge.
Several WeChat mini programmes with similar check-in and alert functions have also emerged.
As more free alternatives surface, paid apps like “Are You Dead?” may fade from prominence over time, given Chinese consumers’ preference for value for money.
Yet, their rapid uptake points to a longer-term shift: one in which technology increasingly compensates for thinning social infrastructure. It raises a broader question of how much care can – or should – be outsourced to systems that register absence but cannot provide presence.
In a society that moves fast and increasingly alone, the assurance that someone will notice, even if it is an app, may still be better than no one at all. - The Straits Times/ANN
