The founder of "Are You Dead?" shares: How did we go viral?

"Are You Dead?", an app with a somewhat dark - humored name, quickly went viral in China in just about a day and a half. Through repeated 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 app's explosive popularity: How did it evolve from a small idea into a phenomenon - level app that caught the nation's attention?

Below is the founder's account, interviewed and organized by Pencil News.

Interviewer: Wang Fang

Transcriber: Wu Xinxiao

01

Entrepreneurial Inspiration

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 made it into the top three of the international tool lists in multiple countries (and regions). Thank you all for your enthusiasm.

Many people are curious about why we developed a product with such an "ear - piercing" name. The answer is simple: It's related to the safety needs of the group of people living alone.

I used to be a young person living alone. I'm a member of the post - 95s generation 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 for a game company and lived in an urban village in Bantian District. I often got off work very late.

There was a stretch of the 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 nearby with hardly anyone around.

It was an indescribable feeling. It wasn't a clear - cut sense of danger but a fear that something could go wrong at any time without anyone noticing. If an accident happened, 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 of the road 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 got home and tried to support himself on the sink, he suddenly lost control of his body. He started shaking violently and almost lost consciousness.

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

Afterwards, 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 sections, you could often see people discussing: "What kind of apps are still missing in this era?"

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 gone for a long time without anyone noticing or even taking care of my affairs?

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 was beyond our expectations.

Its user profile is young people living alone in first - and second - tier cities, mainly women, aged between 25 and 35.

After it was launched on the Apple 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 cycle continued.

Even now, the popularity is still rising.

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

In the venture capital field, "Are You Dead?" is extremely popular. There are an unusually large number of investors approaching 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 dark humor.

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

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

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

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

In the future, I think one direction that will surely develop is active AI. Instead of waiting for you to ask for help, it actively senses risks, judges abnormalities, and intervenes to protect you 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 of ours. 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 direction. It's a long - existing but severely underestimated field.

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

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

Through CareAI, parents can check the location, 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 at present.

In the future, we will continue to focus on the group of people living alone and family scenarios and gradually advance this cause.

This article only represents the independent views of the interviewee and does not represent the stance of Pencil News, nor does it constitute any investment advice.

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