Ladies, Need a Plus-One for Your Next Event? Meet Teman Girls, The Companion Service Just for Women

Founded in late April 2024, Teman Girls is a community and platform built to foster meaningful female friendships. Aside from providing an online space for women to chat with like-minded individuals, Teman Girls also curates unique events and offers a system where you can either join someone as a partner or request a partner to share your experience with.

It all began with a group of friends who realised that although they were close, they didn’t always share the same interests. As a result, they couldn’t always accompany each other to do what they wanted.

According to one of them, the problem became the spark to create a solution. After spending weeks on research and development, as well as gathering feedback, Teman Girls was born.

When asked why they chose the name Teman Girls, the team replied that the meaning of it just made sense:

“In Malay, Teman works both as a noun and a verb. You can say ‘Teman?’ to ask someone to come with you or refer to someone as your teman (friend or companion). It's simple, local, warm and encapsulates everything we stand for.”

Image Credit: Provided to Rojak Daily

As of now, the community has six core members: Mina (PR & Marketing), Zulaikha (Creative), Sofia (Finance & Accounts), Leia (Community & Partnerships), Preethi (Business & Operations), Athirah (Procurement & Logistics), and one strategy advisor, Maegan.

Teman Girls currently has more than 5,000 followers on Instagram, 8,417 followers on TikTok, and close to 2,000 members in their Telegram group.

How can someone join the Teman Girls community?

There are two ways to become part of Teman Girls:

1. Join the Telegram Group - Simply fill out a verification form to confirm your gender, as Teman Girls is strictly for women. Although it’s not compulsory to join the Telegram group, it’s worth noting that Telegram is the platform they use for discussions, live chats, and more.
2. Participate in Teman Girls Activities - Whether you’re joining an experience or requesting one, just head to their Instagram or TikTok and choose between the two options to get involved.

Aware of the limitations of the platforms they use, Teman Girls has a team of moderators who monitor the Telegram chat daily. In addition to enforcing strict rules—like no unsolicited DMs and no advertising—the team hopes to one day create their own integrated mobile app or platform to offer better control and safety tools.

“Until then, we rely on community reports and feedback to improve our safety mechanisms. Everyone plays a role in keeping Teman Girls a safe space.”

What’s the difference between ‘Joining a Teman Girls Experience’ and ‘Requesting a Teman Girls Experience’?

Image Credit: Provided to Rojak Daily

When you join a Teman Girls experience, you’re agreeing to become someone else’s companion for an activity they’ve planned. These activities can range from something as simple as going to the grocery store to something as big as traveling to another country.

When you request a Teman Girls experience (or “Teman I…”), you’re the one initiating the plan. Just like the first option, “Teman I…” allows you to request a companion for anything—from a short dinner after work, shopping, going for a run, or simply winding down at a café.

According to the community, in one year, they’ve received close to 400 unique requests!

To ensure participants are serious:

• There’s a RM2 fee to join an experience. RM1 goes to the requester as a small token for planning, and RM1 goes to Teman Girls to cover admin costs like moderation, poster design, and logistics.

“After some feedback rounds, we found RM2 was the sweet spot. Out of RM2, RM1 goes to the person who made the request as a small token for their effort in planning. So, if 8 people join an experience, the requester receives RM8. The other RM1 goes to Teman Girls to cover admin costs like moderation, poster design and handling the logistics.”There’s also a RM10 fee to request an experience. This is refundable if no one joins. If some do, RM7 is refunded to the requester, and RM3 goes to Teman Girls for admin costs.

“It's actually a security deposit. The RM10 will be forfeit only if the requester cancels irresponsibly and unreasonably. This helps to reduce flaking and protects everyone's time and energy.”

Image Credit: Provided to Rojak Daily

If you’ve noticed that most of their experiences involve physical attendance, don’t worry—Teman Girls also offers virtual companionship!

“We've helped the members to host watch parties, link together study buddies, gaming partners or language practice. These requests are free. People would use Telegram or Discord to coordinate this kind of interaction. We believe online companionship can be just as meaningful especially to those that live outside KL, have physical disabilities or prefer introverted settings.”

Although all the founders are from Klang Valley, the community has spread across Malaysia. They’ve even created state-specific chat rooms to help members connect with others nearby.

“Of course, flexibility is key. Even though one person may be from KL and another from Kedah, we've seen them hanging out in Langkawi together through Teman Girls. The goal is not to restrict but to allow meaningful connections to happen whenever you are.”

Not always smooth sailing

No matter how smooth things may seem, Teman Girls is not without its challenges.

When asked, the team revealed that moderation has been one of the biggest hurdles. Since they’re dealing with the public, it’s hard to predict people’s intentions. On top of that, most of their operations are still manual due to limited resources. Another major challenge is staying true to their core values.

“It's very easy to pivot and be swayed away from our original mission. For example, event management can bring in more profit and with the organic content and community-generated promotions, it would've easily become a marketing platform. But we constantly asked ourselves: Does this solve the problem we set out to fix? So as a team, we have weekly stand-up meetings to remind ourselves why we do what we do.”

So, what’s next for Teman Girls?

Image Credit: Teman Girls | Instagram

When asked whether the team has considered expanding or evolving their community, Teman Girls shared that it has always been part of their vision. They plan to develop a platform or tech-enabled system that goes beyond just social interaction.

“We plan to integrate AI and machine learning to better match people based on their interests, schedules and locations. This way, we can create a more seamless experience and make companionship more accessible and personalised.”

Check out Teman Girls on their website, Instagram, and TikTok for more information!

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