Ribbon: a rent-a-local-friend app, web app and website

What it is

Ribbon lets a traveller or a newcomer rent a local friend for a meal, a walk or a day out, in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. It is a product of our own: CodaMinds designed it, built every part of it and runs it today. We show it first because it is the fullest example of what "built and managed for you" means on our pages: an app on both stores, a web version, the system behind them, and a website that search engines rank.

What it had to do

• Let guests and hosts find each other, talk and agree a time, with the chat updating as they type
• Take payment at booking and pay hosts out afterwards, with the records an operator needs when a question comes up
• Give the team a console for members, bookings, payouts and the cases that need a person
• Be found on Google by people searching for exactly this, in English and 中文

What we built

• The iOS and Android app
• The web version of the app
• The back end with real-time chat and payments
• Host payouts and the admin tools behind them
• The marketing site at ribbon.my with a live ribbon scene
• Static pages search engines can read, in English and 中文

What is true today

• Live in four countries, and still run by us
• Lighthouse performance 100 on the website
• #1 on Google for "rent a friend malaysia"
• 488 clicks and 6.6K impressions from Google Search in the 28 days to 21 October 2026, from Search Console
• English and 中文 across the app and the site

What it means for your business

If your business takes bookings, orders or payments through an app or a website, this is the shape of the work: the customer-facing side, the system behind it and the console your staff use, built by one team and kept running after launch. The same team builds business systems, mobile apps and websites for other businesses, with a fixed quote before any work starts.