The founder of "Is It Dead?" shares: How did we go viral?

The APP named "Are You Dead?", with a touch of black humor, quickly went viral in China in just about a day and a half. Through daily check - ins and reminders, it confronts the most hidden anxiety of young people living alone: What if I suddenly "disappear"?

Recently, Pencil News exclusively interviewed its founder, Mr. Guo, to uncover the secret behind the huge success of "Are You Dead?": How did it evolve from a small idea into a phenomenon - level APP that caught the nation's attention?

The following is the founder's oral account, interviewed and organized by Pencil News.

Interviewer: Wang Fang

Transcriber: Wu Xinxiao

01

Inspiration for Entrepreneurship

I'm Mr. Guo, the founder of "Are You Dead?". The APP went viral within a day and a half. Recently, some international media interviewed me and revealed that "Are You Dead?" has entered the top three of the international tools list in many countries (and regions). Thank you all for your enthusiasm.

Many people are curious about why we created a product with such a "jarring" name. The answer is simple: It is related to the safety needs of the group of people living alone.

I used to be a young person living alone. I'm a post - 95s and was born in Henan. After graduating from university, I went to Shenzhen to pursue my career and stayed there for about five years. At that time, I worked in a game company and lived in an urban village in Bantian District. I often got off work very late.

There was a stretch of my way home that is still vivid in my memory: The streetlights were often out, the streets were very dark, and there were some old buildings beside. There were hardly any people.

It was an indescribable feeling. It wasn't a clear sense of danger but a fear that something might happen at any time without anyone noticing. If an accident occurred, it might be a long time before anyone found out.

Even though I'm a man, I would subconsciously quicken my pace to get through that stretch as soon as possible.

At that time, I didn't live alone but shared an apartment with a roommate. He was also a young person living alone.

Once, he got off work very late. When he just got home and tried to support himself on the sink, he suddenly lost control of his body. He started to tremble violently and almost lost consciousness.

I was in the living room at that time. I immediately rushed over to support him and sent him to the hospital right away. The doctor later diagnosed that he had severe acute gastritis.

Afterward, my roommate almost cried as he thanked me, saying that if I hadn't been there, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

At that moment, I clearly realized that this is not an individual's misfortune but a common risk among young people living alone in big cities.

The specific inspiration for "Are You Dead?" came from the Internet, partly from Xiaohongshu. In the comment section, you could often see people discussing: "In this era, what kind of apps are still needed?"

One type of answer appeared very frequently and had a high level of interaction. The general idea was: Is there a software that can notify my family immediately if I forget to check in one day or have an accident, so that I won't be unnoticed for a long time and no one will even take care of my affairs after my death.

People often said these things in a half - joking and half - self - deprecating way, but I could clearly feel that they were serious.

Although I'm not a programmer and can't write code, based on these market demands, I founded "Are You Dead?" with my team.

02

The Process of Going Viral

How did "Are You Dead?" go viral? The speed of its spread even exceeded our expectations.

Its target users are young people living alone in first - and second - tier cities, mainly women aged between 25 and 35.

After it was launched on the App Store, an ordinary user discovered it and spontaneously shared it. Then, from ordinary people to bloggers, and then to third - tier, second - tier, and first - tier media, the process kept repeating.

Even now, its popularity is still on the rise.

The whole process of going viral took only about a day and a half, all through organic traffic.

In the venture capital field, "Are You Dead?" is extremely popular. There are a large number of investors contacting us, from various types of institutions. When they talked to me on the phone, they might start to laugh during the conversation because the name does have a bit of entertainment value and black humor.

But as the conversation progresses, the atmosphere usually changes. Because they will realize that the safety needs of people living alone are not a niche demand but a major demand that has been ignored for a long time.

Currently, the first round of our financing is in the middle to late stage.

Now, "Are You Dead?" has been launched on the App Store, and the Android version is under development. The early development cost is about 1,000 yuan.

Regarding the product's iteration direction, our idea is to first use check - in as the basic function and then gradually enrich the functions.

In the future, I think the active AI will surely develop. It doesn't wait for you to ask for help but actively perceives risks, judges abnormalities, and starts to intervene in protection before real danger occurs.

As for the specific implementation method, it's not convenient to disclose it to the public at present.

This is a serious entrepreneurial attempt. If we consider "safety for people living alone" as a serious business, we should be the first company in China to systematically work on this.

I sincerely hope that more individual developers and small teams in China will pay attention to this area. It's a long - standing but severely underestimated market.

Data shows that as of 2024, there are about 123 million people living alone in China (Data source: "New Era of Living Alone Report" by Ke Research Institute). A significant number of them are willing to pay 8 yuan for their safety and for "Are You Dead?" — we are already profitable.

Our company doesn't only have this one product. Another product is called CareAI, which is a bit like the software version of "Xiaotiancai" (a children's smart wearable company).

Through CareAI, parents can check their children's locations, receive abnormal alerts, etc., to protect their children's safety. In short, all our current applications are centered around safety protection, and the growth rate is quite good.

In the future, we will continue to focus on people living alone and family scenarios and keep moving forward step by step.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the interviewee and do not represent the position of Pencil News, nor do they constitute any investment advice.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Pencil News" (ID: pencilnews), author: Honest Pencil News. It is reprinted by 36Kr with authorization.