Viral app in China taps into national loneliness by asking: ‘Are You Dead?’

By Jessie Yeung, and CNN’s Beijing bureau

(CNN) — In recent weeks, a morbid-sounding app has taken China by storm, tapping into widespread loneliness and youth disaffection in the world’s second most populous country.

The app, named “Are You Dead” and aimed at those who live alone, has a simple premise: Users must check in on the app every day. If several days are missed, the app will automatically notify the user’s emergency contact.

In recent weeks the app has gone viral, topping Apple’s paid App Store ranking on Saturday, according to state-run tabloid Global Times. It’s since been covered in international media, causing such a surge in downloads that the app has rebranded and introduced a subscription fee.

This virality speaks to a larger trend across China, home to 1.4 billion people: a rise in people living alone, often feeling isolated or struggling with their well-being.

By 2030, there could be as many as 200 million single-person households in the country, according to Global Times, citing real-estate research institutions.

There are a few reasons for this. The country’s rapidly aging population means there is a growing number of seniors living alone. Throughout the past decade, hundreds of millions of young people have migrated from their hometowns to find work in far-flung cities – leaving behind emptying villages and isolated elderly parents.

And among young people, there is an overall downward trend in marriages and dating. The number of new marriages in China in 2024 fell to a record low since the government began releasing data in 1986 – reflecting a parallel decline in birth rates that authorities have tried unsuccessfully to reverse.

Add to that a pervasive sense of depression, anxiety and disillusionment that has risen in recent years alongside record-high youth unemployment figures – and you can see why an app with such a grim name might have resonated with users across the country.

“Alone but not lonely, safety by your side,” the app’s description says in the App Store, adding that it aims to reach “a solo office worker, a student living away from home, or anyone choosing a solitary lifestyle.”

Disappearing is ‘the scariest thing’

Many social media users welcomed the app, saying they felt seen or comforted.

“For the first time, someone is concerned about whether I’m dead or alive,” one wrote on the blogging platform Weibo.

“This 8-yuan app is somehow the last bit of dignity for so many young people living alone. The scariest thing isn’t loneliness – it’s disappearing,” another user wrote, referring to the cost of the app ($1.15).

This response shows how the app “taps into this feeling of atomization, being stuck on your own, being isolated in terms of very long working hours,” said Stuart Gietel-Basten, a professor of social science and public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

“A lot of young people … have not been able to have the social life that they would want to.”

However, he added, Chinese society should use the hype around this app as a starting point to find ways to better support both lonely elderly and young people.

“If an app or a piece of technology like this can prevent one person from dying alone, or from taking their own life, and to have just one small piece of connection, of course that is a positive,” he said. “But what you would never want is for this to … substitute more meaningful social interactions.”

Some also urged the app to rebrand to something more encouraging or neutral.

Hu Xijin, a pundit and former editor of Global Times, praised the app for helping lonely elderly residents – but suggested renaming it to “Are You Alive.”

The app seems to have listened – announcing on Tuesday that it would adopt the name “Demumu” on its global app, after attracting massive attention from overseas users. It said it would also raise the price of the app to 8 yuan, up from 1 yuan (about 14 cents).

The new name still contains a subtle nod to its predecessor, though. The “de” in “Demumu” derives from the English word “death,” while “mumu” was tacked on for a friendlier feel, the developers told one state-affiliated news outlet.

In a previous post on Weibo, the developers had thanked its users and the media for the coverage, saying they were a team of three co-founders born after 1995.

“We feel honored and deeply grateful to receive such widespread attention,” the team said in the statement, according to Global Times.

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CNN’s Rae Wang contributed to this report.