BeijingThe one-child policy, the social engineering carried out by the Chinese government to contain the birthrate, is taking its toll. China’s population is shrinking and aging while the number of people living alone and socially isolated is increasing. By 2025 China lost about 3.39 million people and the birth rate fell by 17%, to the lowest level in recorded history. Efforts to stimulate births and marriages are failing and it is estimated that by 2030 there will be more than 200 million single-person households.
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Proof of these social transformations is the success of the application named provocatively “Are you dead?”. It has been described as “a security companion” and leads the ranking of the most downloaded application on the Chinese internet. The operation is simple: the user has to click on a large green dot in the center of the screen, and if more than two days pass without clicking, an email is automatically sent to the designated contact person. The app wants to be insurance for lonely people who fear dying alone and that their corpse will be discovered after months.
The most remarkable thing about the phenomenon is that it is not a public service intended for the elderly living in remote areas, like our teleassistance systems. It’s a paid app aimed especially at young and middle-aged middle-class people, as it’s currently only downloaded on the iPhone. In China, it is common for young people to study in other cities and live far from their families. There is also a lot of work mobility and it is common to go to work far from home. The work environment is often very competitive and there are many people who live in isolation without real social connections.
Family relationships are also very demanding especially for women. Getting married and having children is practically an obligation and many young people avoid these pressures by living in isolation. The covid-19 pandemic has increased this type of behavior. More and more people are living in their apartment, teleworking. In the People’s Republic, the extensive home delivery services make it possible to survive practically without leaving home.
“Mai I won’t be alone”
Social networks have been filled with comments about the usefulness of this app as insurance for young people. And they are even surprised by the comments of many women who suggest that this application allows them not to have to get married, since “they will never be alone”.
In a country where the word “death” is taboo, the most questioned has been the name of the application. Some examples: In many elevators there is no fourth floor, because the number four sounds very similar to the word dead. It goes directly from the third floor to the fifth. In telephone numbers or car license plates, you also try to avoid the four because it gives bad luck. On the other hand, numbers with eight, considered lucky, are more expensive (in China the phone number or license plate is bought).
However, the marketing has worked with a name so catchy that in China it’s a pun on a well-known home delivery app: “Are you hungry?” (Elema?) sounds very similar to “Are you dead?” (Silema?, in Chinese).
The controversy has helped the app go viral, although the company Moonscape Technologies is considering changing the name to something friendlier. Outside of China, the name chosen to market it is “Demumu”, which sounds more like a pet name. It has succeeded in the United States and in Singapore, where it is one of the two most downloaded in the last month. Interestingly, in Spain it is also one of the four most downloaded payment applications. The success has probably been driven by the Chinese community.
Beyond the anecdote, the aging and shrinking population is affecting the development of China, which will increasingly need to invest more money in the care of the elderly, while losing too many workers. Only 7.92 million babies were born last year, far from the 9.54 million in 2024 according to the Office for National Statistics. It is the lowest rate since the People’s Republic was created in 1949 and for the fourth consecutive year the population decreased to 1,404 million. In fact, from 2023 the Asian giant is no longer the most populous country in the world, it has been overtaken by India where, moreover, the population continues to grow.
