GEORGE TOWN, Aug 7 — Two introverted individuals who enjoyed exploring dining options online have launched a website designed to help users find and review restaurants before making reservations.

The platform, Konfem.com, goes beyond simply listing restaurants; it also provides detailed menus and current promotions.

Co-founders Jacqueline Ang from Melaka, and Dezmenn Phoon from Perak, aimed to create a site akin to hotel booking platforms but tailored specifically for the food and beverage industry.

"Our vision is to let foodies browse and see what’s available for booking, they can see the menus, select the meals and make reservations at restaurants that are listed,” Ang said.

She said they started developing the site early this year.

The site was officially launched a few months ago and currently has 50 food and beverage companies listed.

The places listed are located in Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Penang and Perak.

Both Ang and Phoon are still working as computer engineers so the site is a part-time venture they decided to start because they saw a need for such a service.

"If we browse online, we can only find lists by Google, it doesn’t show the menus, the set meals, or the promotions available,” she said.

She said many restaurant owners are still receiving reservations via phone calls and manually writing it down which leaves room for errors and mixups.

She said their website will give restaurants online visibility and effective management tools where there will also be direct interactions with customers.

"We hope to achieve a status whereby our platform will be the go-to platform for foodies, just like everyone’s preference nowadays to use Agoda or Booking.com to make reservations for their accommodations,” she added.

Currently, the site invites restaurant owners to register to be listed on it and also users to suggest restaurants to be listed on it.

The duo hopes to further develop the site to improve usability with personalised consumer dashboard, a more robust intelligent search algorithm, and an interactive map and to incorporate user reviews and ratings.

"We also hope to introduce an RSVP feature for events and weddings,” Ang said.

The RSVP feature will automate wedding invitations for couples where invitations will be sent to their guests and the guests can immediately RSVP to the invitation via WhatsApp.

She said this will simplify the whole process, and collate the replies received into data for the couple to properly plan their wedding.

”This feature can be used for other events that require RSVP too, not only weddings,” she said.

”Konfem.com is a website-based application so users need not download any app on their phones, they can add it to their phone home screen for convenience or they can also directly go to the website on their internet browser,” she said.