The #1 Paid App In China Is An App Called ‘Are You Dead?’ Designed For People Scared Of Dying Alone

Sometimes you read about some simple invention that made a sh1t-ton of money overnight and slap yourself for not thinking about it first. Well, this is one of those times.

The ‘Are You Dead?’ app (Mandarin: Demumu) has become the #1 most downloaded paid app in China and it really is just so, so simple.

Designed for individuals living alone, the app requires the user to manually “check in” every two days. If a user fails to tap the check-in button, the app automatically sends an alert to your emergency contact(s).

That’s it. You get a notification, click the button, and if 48 hours go by without you clicking ‘I’m Not Dead’, it sends ‘Your Grandma (or whoever) might be dead’ to your emergency contact. Simple and straightforward.

‘Are You Dead?’ apparently cost a team of three friends just 1,000 yuan (£105/$140) to build. People are paying 8 yuan (about £0.85/$1 USD) for it. According to one of its developers (a dude named Mr. Guo)  they’re now set to sell a 10% stake in ‘Are You Dead?’ for approximately 1 MILLION yuan (£106,000/$150,000).

With China projected to have as many as 200 million single-person households by 2030, the app is only going to get more and more popular. It’s also now gaining traction in the US, Hong Kong and Singapore, so I can’t even imagine how many millions it’s going to make when it’s all said and done. Really though, any one of us could have come up with this idea. What stopped us? Are we lazy? Are we dumb?

I do wonder how many deaths the ‘Are You Dead?’ app has announced thus far. There’s probably loads of false alarms when a user forgets to check in and causes unbridled panic to their loved ones, but that’s a small price to pay for the relief afterwards when you find out they’re still alive and kicking.

How many of the emergency contacts who did get that text actually found their loved one had died alone in their tiny Chinese apartment, though? I’m sure they’ve got the numbers on that somewhere.

For the billionaire who used an unreleased facial recognition app to spy on his daughter’s date, click HERE.