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An app just went viral in China for doing one absurdly simple thing: asking people to press a button on their phone every day 🤯.
It's NOT a free app.
It soared to the #1 spot on China's paid App Store.
Built by three Gen Z founders working part-time.
Total build cost: <$150.
The app is called “Sǐ le me” (死了么), which translates to “Am I Dead Yet.”
Here’s how it works: every day, you press a big green button to signal you’re still alive. If you miss check-ins for 48 hours, your emergency contacts get notified. No account required.
They’ve since rebranded the app to Demumu to go after the global market, which is now charting in the Utilities category in the US as well.
This is probably the strangest app story I’ve heard in a while, but there are a lot of interesting lessons here for consumer founders.
Founding story
(Partially translated from a Blue Whale News article)
The founder, Guo, moved to Shenzhen after college and worked at a gaming company.
He often left work late, walking through dimly lit streets lined with old buildings and barely any people. There wasn’t any clear danger, just this quiet fear that something could happen and no one would know.
The turning point came one night when his roommate returned home late and suddenly collapsed, shaking violently and nearly losing consciousness. Guo rushed him to the hospital. Acute gastritis.
The doctor said that if no one had been there, the outcome could’ve been very different.
Around the same time, Guo saw a viral post on Red (China’s Pinterest-like app). Someone joked:
“Can there be an app that notifies my family if I forget to check in? I don’t want to disappear without anyone knowing.”
He resonated with it deeply, gathered two friends, and built the app on nights and weekends.
Total cost: ~1,000 RMB (~$140).
The Viral Explosion
Guo and his squad launched the app within a month.
It had two functions: check in + notification. No signups required.
It went from zero to #1 in the paid App Store in about 1.5 days, entirely organically.
In interviews, Guo said a regular user discovered it, shared it, and the app spread from everyday users to content creators, then to micro-media, and finally major outlets. The entire cycle took less than two days.
Most users are solo-living women aged 25–35 in major Chinese cities.
That demographic is growing fast. According to Beike Research, China’s solo-living population could reach 150–200 million by 2030. Among people aged 20–39, the number living alone is expected to grow from about 18 million in 2010 to 40–70 million by 2030.
The growth, along with the team’s vision of building a safety platform for solo dwellers, has attracted serious investor interest. The team is rumored to be in talks for an 8-figure valuation.
My take
This app could very well be a fad and fall into oblivion next week, but there are a few helpful lessons here for founders.
1/ Simple idea, many extensions
While this anxiety is especially visible among solo-living Gen Z women in China, the underlying fear is universal.
You could imagine:
A version for elderly parents, managed by their children
A version for solo travelers
A version for students studying abroad
A hardware angle, like a single physical button on a nightstand
Even a B2B version offered as a wellbeing perk for remote teams
2/ Pay attention to Chinese consumer trends
I recommend tracking Chinese consumer trends if you have not already done so.
More and more trends now start in China and get exported west — the reverse of what happened 10–20 years ago. Live shopping, social commerce, super-apps, and community-driven products all followed this path.
Here are some sources I recommend for tracking these trends:
3/ Power in extreme simplicity
The best consumer founders know this. You can build a million dollar company by identifying one unmet consumer mindset and building one killer feature.
Cal.ai grew to $40M ARR just by allowing users to track macros by scanning food with a phone camera. Granola blew up by transcribing meetings in a non-intrusive way. Am I Dead Yet is just a green button and email notification.
The name matters too.
“Am I Dead Yet” is provocative, uncomfortable, and impossible to ignore. It forced people to talk about a taboo topic and turned a quiet fear into a cultural moment.
If you’re building a consumer product, ask yourself:
What’s the one fear my user doesn’t say out loud?
What’s the simplest possible way to relieve it?
Start there.
—
Speaking of building simple, effective products...
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See you next Tuesday,
Leo
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