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An indie app with just one perform is at present all the craze in China. It’s referred to as si le ma (死了吗), which interprets actually to “Are You Useless But.” The app asks customers to faucet a button as soon as day-after-day, and in the event that they fail to take action for 2 consecutive days, it routinely sends an electronic mail to a delegated emergency contact, urging them to examine on the consumer in individual.
Guo, one of many three Gen-Z builders behind Are You Useless But, says he has been constructing social and leisure apps for a couple of years. However he wished to pivot to one thing extra basic. “After I checked out Maslow’s hierarchy of wants, I noticed that security wants are deeper and apply to a wider group of individuals. That felt like a superb path,” Guo informed WIRED in an unique interview. (He requested to be recognized solely by his final identify, for privateness causes.)
The app’s sensible performance and the darkish humor its identify evokes have struck a chord with younger folks in China, who swarmed to obtain it over the previous week. On the time of publication, Are You Useless But was the primary paid app within the Chinese language model of Apple’s App Retailer. It is usually climbing the rankings in abroad app retailer charts, though Guo says he hasn’t spent a dime on paid promoting. “We don’t have that form of cash,” he says.
Guo tells WIRED that the workforce has been contacted by greater than 60 traders since Are You Useless But blew up on social media, and they’re in energetic conversations about fundraising. He claims that some traders have supplied tens of millions of Chinese language yuan—lots of of 1000’s of US {dollars}—for a stake in its mother or father firm, Moonscape Applied sciences, which has launched only a handful of apps. The workforce expects to announce the outcomes of the fundraising talks in a couple of weeks. “We knew there can be some traction, however the scale of this utterly exceeded our expectations,” Guo says.
Guo and his colleagues initially charged customers a one-time fee of 1 RMB (14 cents) to make use of the app; amid the heightened consideration this week, they raised the worth to eight RMB ($1.15), nonetheless a minimal quantity contemplating there’s no subscription required. Whereas Guo declined to reveal how a lot cash the app has made or what number of energetic customers it has, he says the cash they’ve earned thus far will go towards creating the platform for the long run.
Are You Useless But has caught on notably amongst individuals who dwell alone. The common measurement of a Chinese language household has shrunk dramatically over the previous few a long time. In accordance with a 2020 nationwide census, 25.4 p.c of households consisted of only one individual, up from 14.5 p.c a decade earlier. Whereas aged folks stay the almost definitely to dwell alone, there’s a rising cohort of youthful folks dwelling a solo life-style, and Chinese language companies are more and more catering to this demographic by providing digital or bodily companionship providers.
On Tuesday, the builders introduced on Chinese language social media that Are You Useless But would formally change its identify to Demumu in an effort to higher serve the worldwide market. That identify, which was additionally used for the app’s abroad model beforehand, was impressed by one other Chinese language enterprise success. Guo says Demumu is a mixture of the phrase “demise” and the naming sample of Labubu, the Chinese language plushie monster that went viral globally final 12 months.
Followers of the app are usually not thrilled. Even earlier than the announcement that they had been asking the builders to not change the blunt identify, which was half the enchantment. On Weibo, a Chinese language social platform, probably the most appreciated remark beneath the name-change announcement reads, “Child, your earlier identify was the explanation you went viral.”
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