A Chinese smartphone app called “Sileme,” which literally means “Dead or Alive?”, has swept the top of the most downloaded apps in China.
The idea of the app is based on a very simple mechanism, as it requires the user to log in daily by pressing a large green button to confirm that he is “still alive.” If the user does not log in for two consecutive days, the app automatically sends an email to the emergency contact registered by the user.
Despite the simplicity of the idea, “Sileme” has topped the list of paid apps on the Chinese “Apple” store since January 10, which prompted its developers to increase its price from one yuan to eight yuan (about $1.15), justifying this with reasons related to costs.
According to the “South China” newspaper, the name of the app is not a coincidence, but rather a clever play on the name of the giant Chinese food delivery company “Ele.me” (Are you hungry?), which is owned by the Alibaba Group, which recently changed its name to “Taobao Shangou.”
The application was launched in June 2025, and was registered in the name of a company in Henan Province in central China. It was developed by three young men in their thirties who work full-time in other jobs, but it currently only works on the “iOS” system.
According to one of the developers, Guo Mingzhu, the development of the application took only one month, at a cost of no more than 1,000 yuan ($140). However, the application witnessed a significant increase in the number of downloads, reaching 200 times after it spread widely.
The name of the application provokes mixed reactions in a society that traditionally does not prefer to explicitly mention “death.” While some considered the name “amusing and bold,” others expressed their strong dissatisfaction, as one follower wrote: “The name of the application seems like it wants to kill me, I will never use it.”
