中国 iPhone App Store 付费榜首是一款名为 “Are you dead yet?” 的应用，售价 8 元（约 $1）。它只有一个巨大的绿色按钮让用户每天签到，并设置一个紧急联系人：如果你未签到就提醒对方。除此外几乎没有功能，但其对应的社会议题在网上引发强烈反响，周末由官媒 Global Times 进行了概述。该应用 10 月最初发布、上月更新，但热度主要是在最近几天才上升。
Global Times 报道称，到本十年末中国一人户家庭预计可达 2 亿（200 million），包括学生、大城市务工者，以及该应用的主要人群：老年人。推动因素包括从农村向更昂贵城市生活的快速转移、过去的独生子女政策、以及持续下滑的结婚率；与此同时，许多子女会给父母购买基础手机以使用 Alipay 等服务，使老年人相对更“在线”。该应用把代际关怀压缩为通知服务，凸显现代生活密度上升与可投入时间下降之间的张力。
开发者表示将改进功能，例如更好的 SMS 通知，并探索加入消息功能及更适老的产品，同时也会考虑改名；在偏好吉祥符号的中国，这个标题显得尤其刺耳，例如 Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. 的香港股票代码 9988 被解读为“长久兴旺”。付费榜单上还出现占卜工具，这类软件同样对老年人有吸引力。相关的 “dementia money” 现象并非只在日本：美国失智老年人持有的资产估计约 $6 trillion；作者也提到自己 92 岁的祖母因孤独而感到极度无聊。
China’s top paid iPhone app is called “Are you dead yet?” and costs 8 yuan (about $1). It has one oversized green button for a daily check-in and an emergency contact who is alerted if you miss it. That is essentially all it does, yet the social issue it targets drew a strong online response, summarized over the weekend by the state-run Global Times. The app was first released in October and updated last month, but its popularity has mainly surged in the last few days.
Global Times reports that China may reach as many as 200 million one-person households by the end of this decade, spanning students, big-city workers, and the app’s core demographic: the elderly. Drivers include rapid rural-to-urban shifts into less affordable city life, the former one-child policy, and plunging marriage rates; at the same time, many elders are relatively tech-connected because children buy basic phones for services such as Alipay. The app turns intergenerational checking-in into a notification service, highlighting the squeeze between denser modern life and less time for routine contact.
The creators say they will add improvements such as better SMS notifications, explore messaging and more elder-friendly products, and may also change the name; in China, where auspicious symbols are preferred, it lands with a particular thud, as with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Hong Kong ticker 9988, read as “long prosperity.” Other top paid apps include fortune-telling tools that also appeal to older users. A related “dementia money” problem is not just Japan’s: older adults with dementia in the US hold an estimated $6 trillion in assets; the author also notes a 92-year-old grandmother bored by solitude.